Red Hot
by SamicaWrites
Summary: "Severide! Casey!" The Chief yelled out in fear, watching his lieutenants run toward the building they'd thought to be safe. The building they'd sent their paramedics into, the building that had once again reignited as the result of an explosion. The stories of house 51's Squad 3, Truck 81 and Ambulance 61. Dawsey! Ship it!
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1**

 **This is my first Chicago Fire let alone (PD or Med) Fic, so I am excited and I hope you like it. I've been looking for good Casey and Dawson fics and haven't found any that have been my cup of tea, yet. If any of you know of a really good one DM me, I'd love to read it.**

It was a Tuesday, a regular Tuesday on shift for the fire fighters and paramedics of Chicago. There was a call in at the station for all Truck, Squad and Ambo to head toward a structure fire on the edge of town. It was the middle of shift, the day still had hours of light left as everyone pulled out of the fire house.

Gabby leaned back as Shay followed the directions toward the fire, Dawson and Shay usually drove behind the boys but they had gotten a head start on them. The girls had just come back from a run from Chicago med and were stalking up supply's back at the fire house when the call came in.

Truck pulled in from the left and Squad from the right, the Smoke was a dark grey, any fire fighter worth his salt knew it'd be black in a matter of minutes. Once it went black, Chief would call for everyone to get out.

Making eye contact, Casey and Severide nodded before Casey made the order, Stay low and move quick. The siren from the ambo could be heard fast approaching as the men slipped on their masks and walked into the building.

"Fire department call out!" Everyone yelled as they moved through the first floor.

Severide spoke threw his radio to the other lieutenant, "Casey, squad is going to start on the second floor."

"Alright! Truck check the last of the rooms."

"No one is down here lieutenant!" Cruz yelled as he and Mouch cleared the last room on the first floor.

"3 Minutes!" They all heard chief Boden order through the radios.

"No need Chief." Severide's voice cracked through the radio. "There is so one here."

Truck and squad filed out of the building, the lieutenants head toward their chief, while the rest of the guys prepare the hoses to put out the fire.

Severide took the lead, "No one inside, the fire was man made. There were mattresses in 3 of the rooms upstairs, you could choke on the amount of gasoline that was used chief."

"They were intentionally set." Casey agreed, the fire was all contained on the upper level. The bottom was just flooded with smoke.

""Who ever our fire bug was, didn't stick around to watch the show."

"Good work." Boden nodded, "Pack up and I'll see you back at the house."

"Hey chief, where's the ambo?" Casey asked, he'd looked for Dawson when first exiting the building but couldn't see her or shay.

"They got called out to another fire, after Severide confirmed there was no one inside I told them to take it." Casey nodded, he'd see Gabby back at the house later.

.

"I'm telling you we basically get paid to drive around and watch men run into burning buildings." Shay joked as they drove back to the house.

They;d been called to a car fire, a 17 year old boy had fallen asleep at the wheel after working all night to support his family. It was cases like this that made Gabby grateful for the life she'd been given and her family. They might not be perfect, Antonio and his ex wife were proof of that, but they were still better than most.

"I wish we could help more."

Shay took her eyes from the road to take a glance at her partner, her face was stern as she look out the window.

"We do what we can, we can't save everyone Dawson. Remember last year when... When Darrel called us."

Darrel had been a regular for the two women, he'd been lonely and needed a friend and in the end shot himself. That was a rough day for both of them.

"How could I forget."

"He needed someone and we were always there, we help him by showing up when he called."

Gabby looked at her partner in shock, "He took his own life!"

"But for months before that we were there for him, gave him someone to talk to." Gabby shook her head. "Alright fine, how about this. Do you remember that little girl who's mom was in a coma at Chicago med? When ever we stopped by we took her down to the cafeteria and ate lunch with her."

"Maria." That was the little girls name.

Shay smiled, "It's the small things Dawson, that's what counts."

"You know you're pretty wise."

Shay laughed and sat up in her seat, "Yeah well I am a lesbian, we have to be to survive double PMS."

Dawson laughed shaking her head, her best friend was amazing.

"Ambo 61?"

Dawson picked up the radio, "Go for 61."

"Bridge connecting city and walbash, a kids just fell into the water."

Shay looked the their GPS, "We're 4 minutes out."

"We'll take it." Dawson told dispatch as she flicked on their sirens.

"Busy day."

The Latina smiled, "Time to make a difference."

.

"Mouch would you please remove your stuff from the dryer." Cruz complained walking into the main room, wet laundry in his hands.

"Not mine." Mouch muttered not taking his eyes from the book he was reading.

"Then who's is it?"

New house guiltily raised his hand about to admit to forgetting he was doing a load when the bell went off.

"Squad 3, water rescue."

"Who's swimming in the fall?" Capp asked.

Kelly walked past him toward the floor. "I don't think it was intentional."

The system cracked again but instead of the automated voice coming through their speakers, it was Shay's voice coming through on the house radio. Their personal radios were always waiting for them when they geared up, but the house had it's own radio that was always on channel 3 so squad, truck or ambo could have a direct connection to the station.

"We're going to need a second ambo rolled to our location, Dawson's in the water."

Severide turned to look back at Casey who was now on his feet, "Ride with us. Let's go!"

"Casey!" Chief Boden called, "You'll ride with me. Herrmann you're acting lieutenant."

The rest of truck stayed behind hoping for the best.

.

As the park beside the bridge came into view, Dawson started unbuckling as Shay pulled up behind a group of kids.

"What happened?" Dawson asked them, her eyes scanning the water.

These kids couldn't have been older than 10, but the boy in the red sweater seemed to be the most calm so Gabby spoke directly to him.

"Did you see what happened here?"

He nodded, "We were playing on the bridge, we always walk home together. Zac thought it would be funny to walk along the outside of the railing. You know like you do going up the stairs at your house? But when he climbed over he slipped and fell."

Gabby nodded, "Shay! The kid fell from the bridge."

"Damn." The blonde muttered under her breath. "Dispatch said squad was called, but the fire house is at least 10 minutes out."

Gabby moved away from the kids, pulling her partner with her, "He'll drown in 10 minutes, if the fall didn't kill him."

"What do you want to do, we can't go in there." The blonde saw the look her in friends eyes. "Dawson!"

"He's just a little boy Shay, we're supposed to make a difference remember."

"By handing out blankets in the homeless when it's cold and water bottles when it's hot. Not jumping into water when it's so cold there are thin layers of ice close to shore!"

"We've already been here for two minutes and I haven't see or head anyone surface." Dawson started to remove her fall windbreaker and radio, it didn't matter how cold the water was going to make her, if she was to heavy to swim she wouldn't get far.

"He fell over there." One of the little girls pointed toward the other side of the river.

Moving quickly Dawson stood on the edge of the water, taking a deep breath she jumped in, the water swallowing her up. The water was definitely colder than it should be for early September, but the current flowing into the river came from the ocean making the temperature lower.

"Coming back to the surface Dawson mentally thanked her parents for the years of swimming competitions and lessons that forced her to become a strong swimmer. The water was murky, when Dawson got to the other side of the river she started diving like she'd seen squad do during water rescues.

The water was deep but Dawson held her breath, made harder by the cold water that surrounded her, as she searched for Zac.

.

Matt's hands were clenched in his lap as he road in the chiefs SUV behind squad. How the hell had Gabby ended up in the water, did she fall? Was she pushed? Did she get hurt. There were a lot of rocks at that river, maybe she hit her head off of one of those.

Matt and Gabby had their ups and downs in the past but they were strong now, almost 2 years together was a long time and Matt was worried to lose her. Anytime they'd go out on a call, even if truck was there he had a job to do, he couldn't watch her 24/7.

"She'll be okay Casey, Shay's there."

Matt nodded, but couldn't find it in him to vocalize a response. His mind was stuck in the past, remembering the day when Gabby's voice came through the house radio after the ambo had been hit.

 _"You cheat." Severide called out Capp as they played cards in the main room._

 _"Do not, you just don't like to lose."_

 _"Yeah, to a cheater."_

 _Matt shook his head from down the table. "You both cheat and you know it."_

 _Kelly looked at him, "Hey now, I don't cheat."_

 _"You count the cards!" Matt exclaimed._

 _Capp threw down his cards in mock anger and stood up, "I knew it!"_

 _The static on the radio became louder and everyone quieted to hear the message coming through._

 _"We-Ambo 61 has been hit- Fenbar and Lake shore. Immediate assistance." Everyone froze, their paramedic sounded out of breath and confused as she spoke to them._

 _Casey stood up and jogged toward the radio, but Herman beat him there._

 _"Gabby what's going on?" When the question didn't get a response Herman asked again. "Ambo 61 do you copy? Shay? Dawson?"_

 _"Why aren't we being called, she said they were hit right?" Cruz asked._

 _Severide shook his head, "They're from our house, they won't send us if another truck is available."_

 _"Gabby?" Matt tried to speak to her through the radio but like Herrmann got no response._

 _Mouch tried to comfort Matt. "They're probably already in another ambulance heading to Chicago med. They'll call us when they can."_

Everything had turned out okay in the end, Gabby had a couple bumps and bruises, Shay was the one who really took the hit. It still didn't stop him from thinking about her on the job. He may be a fire fighter but he was also her boyfriend, both roles were important to him.

Gabby was panting when she finally found Zac at the bottom of the river, he wasn't breathing and she still had a 2 minute swim back to Shay and the waiting kids. Her legs, arms and lungs burning from the amount of energy it took to keep swimming in the cold water.

"Come on Dawson!" Shay yelled from the shore.

Looking up Gabby saw blankets and equipment waiting for them.

"Back up kids, give them some room." Gabby heard Shay tell the kids as she made it to the shore.

Gabby lifted the young boys body to Shay so she could get out of the water herself, her body now telling her it was okay to rest. But Gabby wouldn't rest, not when Zac was back on dry land.

Shay started CPR, while Gabby worked to slowly warm his limbs, rubbing his legs and arms to start circulation.

"That was really dumb Dawson."

Gabby didn't respond, she did the right thing. Their job is saving lives, they couldn't save Zac's life when he was laying at the bottom of the river.

Sirens sounded and a couple moments later squad and the chief pulled up to the park, an ambo following behind them.

"Gabby!" She couldn't see him, but she knew her boy friends voice anywhere.

"We need to get him to med or he's not going to make it. Switch with me." Gabby waited till Shay's hands came off the boys chest before she took over compression.

Grabbing the back board Shay caught eyes of the firemen she worked with, there eyes fixed on the wet paramedic trying eagerly to save the young boys life.

"Severide, I'm going to need you to take over for Dawson on the way to the hospital."

The firefighter nodded and followed the blonde to the scene.

"Shay I got it." Dawson was the PIC she didn't need Shay benching her.

"You're shaking, you need to get checked out. Severide's got it."

"I'm fine!" She insisted

Serveride's hands pushed her's out of the way as he and Shay moved the young boy onto the gurney and quickly continued to the ambo. Leaving Gabby kneeling on the ground beside the group of kids.

As she looked around she saw the Chief, her boyfriend and the rest of the squad guys eyeing her. Her job wasn't done yet though, as ambo 61 took off Gabby turned to the kids.

"There is a police man over there waiting to take you guys all home okay."

A squad car had shown up only a couple minutes ago, the officer offered warm blankets and had gotten in contact with Zac's mother.

"Is he going to die?" The boy in the red sweater asked.

Gabby bit her lip and rubbed her cold hand up and down his arm, "I don't know hun."

"Dawson." Chief Boden called to her, his voice demanding attention. "This Officer has it from here, go get checked out."

Gabby allowed the cop to lead the kids back to his cruiser, "All due respect sir but I just need a warm shower and change of clothes."

"I cannot allow you to remain on duty if you do not get checked out."

The paramedic ran her tongue over her teeth before silently walking past the men toward the back door of the ambo. The presence of Matt trailing behind her remained unnoticed by her, until Gabby noticed the paramedics looking over her shoulder.

"Matt I'm fine."

"There is no harm in getting checked out." The warmth that usually accompanied his voice was gone, he was mad despite his efforts to remain calm.

So she did, Gabby answered all the questions she was asked. Did you hit your head? Did you swallow any of the lake water? How long were you submerged in the water? When they were finally all done they started to leave but Gabby had other plans.

"Hey, actually would you mind giving me a life to med? I want to check on that little boy."

Matt grabbed her arm, "Shay will tell you everything when she gets back. You need to take care of yourself."

Gabby spoke quietly so only Matt could hear her, "Baby I'm okay."

He gave her a look that said she souldn't be disagreeing with him right now.

"It's no problem, we were going there to stalk up when we go the call."

Gabby nodded slipping out of Matt's hold and climbing into the back of the ambo. "My pair of extra work clothes is in the front of ambo 61, the sooner I get to the hospital the sooner I get warm." She assured him.

Matt worked his jaw, silently closing the back doors of the ambulance, giving them a tap to let the paramedics know they were all clear to take off. Watching the ambulance drive away, his girlfriend inside Matt shook his head. He needed to get moving so everyone could get back to work.

Squad had already left while Boden waited for Casey. Matt could tell his chief wanted to give him some words of reassurance but held back, for which he was grateful.

.

"Shay!" Gabby called out when she found her other half standing by the information desk at the hospital.

The blonde shook her head sadly seeing her friends hopeful face. When she didn't get the reaction she wanted from Shay, Gabby looked at Severide in hopes he'd give her the answer she'd wanted.

"I'm sorry Gabby." He said, his hand making contact with her wet shoulder.

Shay held out the keys to ambo 61, "Get changed, you can't stay in those wet clothes, you're going to get sick." Without a word Gabby excused herself leaving the other two alone to continue their conversation.

"I don't know what's going on with her lately, before we were called to the park she was talking about needed to make a difference and wishing she could do more."

"What you guys do everyday is amazing, but it can also take a tole on you. Anyone in our lines of work has days they wish they could have done more. Today Gabby did more, it was a risk but she did what she thought she had to."

"It was reckless, you could have been fishing two bodies out of that water."

Severide shook his head, as a firefighter he understood weighting risks in tricky situations. If he'd been there in plan cloths he would have went in as well, he wasn't the best person for Shay to be seeking as an ally.

"Dawson should be changed by now, we should get back before another call comes in."

Shay grabbed her ambo's gurney and followed Kelly out of the hospital, still reeling from the events of their last call.

Pulling back into the fire house everyone was quiet, there hadn't been any calls in the time it took the ambulance to get from Chicago med to 51. Gabby hopped out of the back without a word and made her way into the fire house, she may be in warm clothes but her prickled skin could sure use a warm shower.

"Hey, there she is." Herrmann said when she entered the common area.

She looked up not expecting all of Truck and Squad to be staring back at her. Boden had gotten a call from Chicago med a couple moments before and had prepared the house that Severide and Shay had lost the kid on the ride into the hospital.

"Sometimes these things, they just happen." Herrmann gave her a hug. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm just going to take a shower." Gabby's voice sounding void compared to her usually happy personality.

"These flowers were delivered while you were out." Mills pointed to the dinning, "The cards addressed to you."

Gabby nodded, "Pretty."

Stepping back from Herrmann's grasp Gabby continued on past the firefighters and toward the showers. She just needed some time by herself to process the day, there was only a couple hours left on shift and if they got another call she'd need to be able to handle it.

 **I really like protective Matt, we don't get to see him a lot in the show. When I write him on here, he might be a little OOC because of the situations he's reacting to.**


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

 **Thank you to the guest who gave me some Dawsey author suggestions to read. And thank you to everyone who's read this fic so far. I post on Sundays. Already have the next few chapters written and am excited to see what you all think :)**

Once Kelly and Shay arrive back to the fire house, 51 was in for the night. No late night calls, no nothing. Gabby kept herself way in the bunks for most of the night. She expected Casey to try to talk to her again, when he didn't she figured he was waiting until they got home to have any real conversation.

Mills appeared in the bunk room door way an hour before shift was up offering breakfast sandwiches.

"You know I can't say no to your breakfast sandwiches." Gabby smiled following him out into the main room.

Gabby briefly met eyes with Matt when her and Mills entered the common room.

"Damn Casey looked like you've got come competition." Shay joked pulling the card out of the flowers. "These are nice, who are they from?"

Gabby shrugged, breakfast sandwich in hands she joined Shay at the table. The blonde cleared her throat as she opened to card to read it aloud, but stopped when she saw what the card said.

Everyone who'd been waiting to hear Shay, turned when she didn't continue. Shay folded the card back up and put it down on the table.

"What?" Severide asked from his spot at the table.

Shay shrugged for the benefit of everyone else, but sent the fire fighter a glare.

"Shay what did it say?" Dawson held out her hand for the card.

"Who's it from?" Casey asked coming over to them.

Shay sighed and handed it to Dawson, who opened the card and quietly read it to herself.

 _"Accidents happen, you did all you could."_

"Nobody saw who dropped this off?" Everyone shook their heads, now wanting to know what on the card that has shaken the paramedics of 51.

Casey took the card from Dawson's hands and read it out loud.

Herrmann stepped forward. "Let me see that. Who writes this garbage?"

"No one but those kids were at the river." Dawson said.

Severide leaned forward, "These were here before we got back?"

Otis nodded, "They were placed inside where the ambo parks, the door was wide open. It could have been anyone."

"Uhh I'll give these to Connie, I'm going to finish packing my go bag." Dawson said, excusing herself.

Casey went to follow but Shay stopped him, if Dawson needed anything right now the blonde would be the one to give it.

"Babe you need to let that call go. Carrying this stuff around will age you."

Gabby nodded, her and Shay were trained to not carry the job after a call is through. As soon as they leave the hospital their mind would wipe clean of the call. There were some that stick with you but for some reason Zac's death was sticking to Gabby like gum to hair.

"I think I just need to go home, take the next 48 hours to think and relax. Everything has just been so crazy here lately."

"Good plan, maybe you and Casey should get away or do something fun."

Gabby smiled, "Good idea. We haven't really gone out since the summer BBQ. He's been so busy with his side job and we're watching his sisters kids every second weekend. It'll be nice to just spend some time together."

"That's the spirit!" Shay threw her hands up.

"You're a goof."

"Yeah. So Severide and I had a serious talk last night." Gabby stayed silent as she continued. "Remember that girl I went home with last month from Molly's? Guess who came walking out of Severide's room Thursday morning wearing one of his tees."

"No!."

Shay nodded, "Same chick. When she saw me she thought Kelly and I were some weird couple who liked to hook up with the same person."

"What did Kelly say?"

"We just agreed that Molly's was off limits in terms of bringing chicks home."

"I cannot believe you and Kelly went down on the-"

"AHH!" Shay put her hands over her ears. "I'm trying my hardest not to think about it."

"Who do you think she thought was better?"

Shay stood to leave. "You are getting too much joy out of this. Enjoy packing alone."

"At least you had her first." Gabby mocked her has Shay fled the room.

.

"Thanks for the ride." Matt told Severide as they pulled up to the home Matt and Gabby shared.

"No problem, thought I expected it to be a more talkative ride."

"Why'd you think that?"

"Dawson's car is in the driveway, and as much as I don't mind dropping you off you drove with me, I assume to talk about the call 61 went on."

"She just jumped into that river, she's not trained she wasn't in any protective gear. She could have drowned or gotten hypothermia."

Severide shrugged, "She wanted to save that kid, if I'd been there on a day off I would have done the same thing."

"You're a firefighter."

"And she's a paramedic. It's not the same training but we all make those same split second choices everyday."

"How would you feel if it had been Shay?" Casey offered, Kelly cared about Dawson but not the same as he cared for his roommate.

"I would have been pissed she put herself in danger, same as you are. I'm not saying you're in the wrong, I'm saying I understand how she ended up in that water."

"Yeha." Matt sighed.

"Go in there and talk to her, you'll both fell better."

Matt smiled shaking his head, "This coming from the guy who shared a girl with his roommate."

Severide's jaw dropped, "Dude!"

Matt held up his hands in mock surrender as he climbed onto the sidewalk.

.

"Gabby?" Matt asked coming in the door.

"Kitchen."

Walking into the living room he saw the latina in the kitchen pouring herself a glass of water.

"I thought you gave those to Connie?" Matt asked noticing the bouquet of purple flowers on their kitchen counter.

Gabby turned handing him his own glass of water, which he thanked her for.

"I did, these were waiting on the door step when I got here."

"Seriously?"

She nodded.

"Does this one have a card?"

Gabby picked up the flowers and pulled out the card from inside, tossing it down on the table.

"It's the same as the card from the fire house, my name on the front and the same depressing message inside. I figured maybe the flower got mixed up and sent out two bouquets. One to the fire house and one here."

"You said you don't know who these are from, how does some stranger know where our house is?"

"I don't know. I order flowers around the holidays, maybe they use the same shop as me and my address is on file."

Weird but Matt wasn't going to question it further, he didn't have a better answer.

"Listen I know you didn't want to talk about that call while we were at the fire house and I respected that. Now that were home I think we should talk about it."

Gabby turned her back on Matt dumping the rest of her water down the drain, "There isn't really anything to talk about, it is what it is."

Matt eye'd his girlfriend up and down, taking in her posture and tight shoulders. "I'm not talking about-"

"Zac."

"Right. I'm not talking about Zac, we lose people and that is part of the job. But what isn't part of the job is you jumping into freezing rivers to fetch kids."

"Gabby turned on her heels, "There wasn't time Matt, Squad was too far away and clearly I had waited too long anyway but there was a possibility, a chance of survival. If I had stood by and waited for Squad to arrive it 100% would have been too late."

"Something could have happened to you."

Gabby sighed, she knew where he was coming from and didn't want to jump down his throat but at the same time, she needed him to hear her side if they were going to put this behind them.

"Baby something could happen to me any day."

"Shay's voice came over that radio and I just, I thought the worst."

"Our jobs are tough, we can't pretend to be clueless partners who have boring day jobs. We know the risks. When you run into fires my breathing doesn't get easier until we're all safe, driving back to the fire house."

"It's unavoidable." Matt muttered pulling Gabby into his arms.

"I love you."

"I love you too." Matt kissed her forehead and pulled her even tighter into his arms.

"I have to head into Molly's soon, but I was thinking of taking a quick nap first. You wanna join me?"

Matt's brows pulled together. "You never do inventory."

"Ah I traded shifts with Otis so that you and I could go away to the cabin this weekend."

"Look at you making all the plans."

"I know." She smiled into his chest. "It'll be nice to get away for some fun. Plus this will be the last chance we get to go to your cabin before winter hits."

"Alright well why don't you go get some rest and I'll pack our bags. After your shift I can pick you up and we can drive straight there."

"You think it'll be safe to drive in the mountains when it's dark out?"

Matt nodded, chin on the top of her head. "Nothing to worry about. Besides bears."

Gabby scoffed and pushed him away, with a farewell smiled she headed back to their bedroom to get a couple hours before her shift.

.

"How was it?" Severide questioned Casey about his weekend travels as they put their bags into their lockers.

"It was nice to get away from the city and just be in the quiet. Though I have to say I'm happy I let Antonio and Laura borrow it a couple weeks ago, the place was less dusty than it would have been had it set for a couple weeks."

"No rabid raccoons to chance away then?" Severide laughed.

"Gabby would have been sleeping in the car if there had been."

The alert tone sounded though the house interrupting whatever Severide was about to say.

"Ambo 61, injured teenager at Rockway middle school."

Severide chuckled, "A call right at the jump, it's going to be a long shift."

.

"Are kids even in school this early?" Dawson asked climbing into the passenger seat of the ambo.

"There are sports practices that take place before school hours."

"What are you guessing? My moneys on broken arm."

Shay scoffed, "You can walk, get in someones car and drive to the hospital over a broken arm. I'm guessing football and spinal injury."

"They're in Middle school."

"Hey those little brats are vicious."

Gabby chuckled to herself turning the sirens on.

Neither paramedic had been right, the young boy had been messing around on the bleachers during a water break and fell. His leg got caught between two of the bleachers and he ended up snapping his fibula. The bone was sticking thought the skin. After getting him into the ambulance they made a steady journey to drop him off at med.

.

"That was fast." Tony said, noticing the girls hadn't been gone for long.

"Just a simple transport nothing fancy." Shay responded.

Beeep "Requesting additional Trucks, Squad 3, Truck 81, Ambo 61 car pile up on the 311"

Dawson stood up from her half seated position at the table "And back out."

"Don't tell me your already tired Dawson." Herrmann joked with her as he followed everyone to the apparatus floor.

"You don't get thought med school without learning how to live tired." Gabby's response getting a chuck out of the fireman.

Once in the truck Gabby and Shay checked in with each other.

"There will already be ambulances there. We'll be runners coming in so late. I'll pull up, if someone is already loaded to go, you'll get out and stay on scene while I take ambo 43's paramedics with me?"

"You got it." Shay and Gabby had been working with each other for years. There relationship was smooth like butter, with hardly any bumps along the way. "Shay look out!"

The blonde slammed on her breaks as some idiot ran though their stop sign in front of them. "The hell do you think you're going buddy!?"

"Shay just drive, I only saw half his licence plate there is nothing we can do with that. Focus on the task at hand."

Shaking it off Shay did what her PIC instructed and continued onto the site of the accident.

"Where do you need me?" Dawson asked after closing the back doors on ambo 61, an injured women inside.

"Dawson! We could use you over here." Severide called to her from one of the cars in the middle of the accident.

The paramedic rushed over, there was a lot of noise as firefighters cut at metal, people moaning and yelling in pain. The van Squad 3 was working on had flipped upside down, inside there was a man would looked a couple years older than Dawson.

"You think you could get inside and secure him before we remove him from the vehicle?" Severide asked, his team already working on popping the rear window as an entry point.

"No problem."

"It's a little smoky, make sure to stay low." Capp advised her.

The radios cracked, "Severide we need some help in the blue jeep." It was Casey.

"Tony, Capp you help Truck, New house stay with me."

Gabby heard a couple "Yes lieutenant's" before she focused all her attention on the man in the front seat.

"You're a lot prettier than some of those fire fighters I've seen milling around here."

Gabby laughed, he was making jokes that was a good thing. "Oh yeah? I think the smoke is blurring your vision."

"Naw, it might be all the blood in my head though."

"Yea speaking of that, are you feeling lightheaded? Did you lose contentiousness at any point since the accident?"

The guys seemed to think for a long time before he answered, "I don't remember."

"You have a pretty big laceration on your forehead. You must have hit your head off the steering wheel during the accident. Me and my friends outside are going to help you get out of this."

"Alright."

"Okay." Gabby turned from the man to speak into her radio. "Kelly I'm going to need some bandages from my med kit before we even think about getting this man out of here."

"Copy."

Turning back to the man in the drivers seat she asked, "Can you tell me your name?"

"Troy Gavin."

""Well Troy I'm going to get your head patched up and then you'll be out of here in no time, just a couple more minutes."

Troy's eyes were fighting to stay open, his head wound having caused him to lose too much blood. Severide slowly came thought the back window, sliding Dawson's med kit along the roof of the car.

"Doing okay in here?" He asked checking in on her.

"We're fine, aren't me Troy." With no response Gabby looked back at the man to see his eyes close and face paling. "Troy! Open your eyes man."

Severide had only planned to stay in the van long enough to hand Gabby her med kit, but if this man had any chance of surviving they needed to get him out now.

"New house get me the bow cutters!" Severide yelled thought the glass.

He heard a muffled response and watched a pare of firemen boots jog away from the car.

"Kelly I need you to come feel for a pulse." Gabby ordered, ripping open gaze packets and taping them to Troy's forehead.

"It's light but he still has a pulse."

"Good." Gabby nodded placing the last piece of tape onto the gaze to hold it in place. "Where is-"

Before she could finish her question New house broke the back passenger side window, handing the cutters to his lieutenant through the window. Gabby could see the yellow of the back board out of the corner of her eyes.

"The fire is jumping." New house informed them. "It's two cars away but if any of them are leaking it will be on you in seconds."

"Have a extinguisher ready." Severide called, once again seeing New houses boots retreated as he went in search of what his lieutenant asked for.

Working together Dawson and Severide got the man safely out of the van and into the back of an ambulance. As more ambulances arrived back on scene from dropping patients at the hospital Gabby decided to ride with Troy to the hospital, to assist.

Boden had arrived on scene after most of the action had died down. Standing near his SUV he spoke to the firefighters of house 51 thought his radio.

"Squad 3, Truck 81 you're needed at a structure fire on greenwood and beach."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

 **I didn't label this story as a cross over because CPD won't be in it a lot, but there is a Dawson in both shows AND they both are in Chicago, there will be over lap every once and a while.**

As other truck companies came in to relieve them, Truck 81 and Squad 3 raced off to the building fire.

In his head Severide regretting jinxing the house, he shouldn't have said anything to Matt about Dawson and Shay being in for a long shift.

The building fire was 15 minutes away, by the time they got there people were crowding the streets and there were already other ambulances tending to the people who'd made it out of the building.

"The building manager said the first two levels are storage and lobby, he cleared those on his way out. Truck will take levels 3 and 4, Severide?"

"Squad will start level 7 and work our way down to you." Kelly responded to Casey's question.

.

When Dawson got to the hospital Shay was just re stalking to head back to the fire house.

"How'd it go?"

Gabby thought back to the look she'd taken around when her Severide and Troy emerged from the van.

"There were a couple victims being treated on the side of the road, when I was leaving 3 more ambo's show'd up. They have it covered."

Shay nodded, "Good. Ready to head back?"

As if on cue, dispatch came through their radios, "Ambo 61 available?"

"Go for 61." Dawson the first to raise her radio.

"Shot's fired at Rockway middle school, police request EMS on scene."

Both paramedics locked eyes with each other.

"We'll take it." Gabby said into the radio.

"What the hell? we were just there!" Shay snapped pushing the gurney toward the emergency exit.

"I guess this is what happens when school is actually in session."

.

As Truck and Squad came out of the building they ordered for a go ahead on the water.

"No one inside?" Chief Boden asked in disbelief.

Casey nodded, "No one."

"The fire was only on the upper levels," Severide explained, "Gasoline was used as an accelerant to light mattresses on fire. Sound familiar?"

Matt nodded. "The structure fire from last shift. You think we are looking at serial arson?"

"That's what it seems like."

Chief Boden cut in, "We won't file with Chicago PD just yet, but make sure this suspicion makes it into both of your reports."

Both Lieutenants nod, they'd seen serial arson like this before. When an ex firemen from their house went rouge. The pattern is the same and every fire worse than the last. The first one was a two story building, now a seven story condo. Who ever this was seemed to be escalating quickly.

Matt tapped Severide's arm, "I might give Antonio a call. Do you remember the rape arson case they worked a couple months back?"

He nodded, "I thought they got the guy locked up in New York?"

"They do. But I want to check in, make sure there isn't something going on that we don't know about."

"Alright." Severide agreed. "Call him when we get back to the house. I want to get in front of this if we can."

Casey nodded, climbing into the truck.

.

The information the paramedics got from dispatch had lead them to believe the shooter was no longer active, but as the girls rolled up they realized that was not the case.

Police were parked in from of the school their cars used as shields as they looked at the doors and windows for any signs of the shooter. Shay turned the sirens off and pulled the ambo into the lot away from the first line of police cars.

"Where is the victim?" Shay asked, as her and gabby met one of the detectives who seemed to be sent to meet them.

He pointed toward the middle school, "No one had come out. Our shooter went active during fist period this morning around 9:50, fired 3 shots. He was silent for 30 minutes before he became active, firing another 6 shots. We don't know if they were warning shots or if they were for exaction. But we know the shooter has extra bullets."

"How do you know that?" Gabby asked.

"A regular revolver holds 6 bullets. We assumed the shooter fired the first 3 then reloaded, then fired the 6 rounds and hadn't fired since. That was over an hour ago before any first responders were on scene."

"Maybe he turned the gun on himself." Shay offered.

"He's no longer active, that's all we know for now. We can't send anyone in when there is no immediate threat."

Gabby scoffed. "You said he fired 9 shots, the people those bullets went into would disagree with your threat assessment."

"No weapons have been discharged since law enforcement arrived on scene, it's protocol. We wait for SWAT to make entry, until then we can't do anything."

"Do you know who the shooter is?" Gabby asked. The Detective gave her a questioning look. "You keep referring to the shooter as a he."

"One of the students who called 911 identified the boy as a football player."

.

The fire house was quiet as the men stuffed their faces with the stew Mills had cooked up for lunch, after they'd gotten back from the car pile up.

They girl weren't back yet, but as Severide predicted their day was a busy one. They hadn't made it back to the house that shift without being called back out.

"Shay's going to strangle you when I tell her what you did." Matt joked as he and Severide put their dishes in the sink.

"Don't you dare. If Shay knows I jinxed their shift, it's all I'll be hearing about for the next week."

"Teach you to mess with that kind of stuff."

Kelly laughed, whipping his hands on the towel nearby. "If the girls get back before I wake up tell Shay-"

"Truck 81, Squad 3 Structure fire."

Kelly groaned, realizing he wasn't going to get that nap her needed.

"You realize this is karma." Casey grumbled pushing him out of the way.

"I'm never talking again."

.

After hearing that the shooter was a guy on the football team, Dawson and Shay demanded to speak with one of the detectives in charge.

"Do you think this is related to the call we got this morning?" Shay asked as they waited.

Gabby nodded. "It has to be. A football player breaks his leg during morning practice and another football player starts shooting off rounds before second period. I'd say there connected."

The paramedics were surprised to see Voight coming toward them, they hadn't known his unit was the one called to the shooting.

"I've been told you want to speak to me." Detective Voight and his team arrive on scene a couple minutes after Gabby and Shay.

Before Gabby had a chance to share about the call her and Shay had responded to that morning one of the upper level windows of the school smashed open, glass falling into the flower bed bellow.

"Oh my god!" Gabby said in fear as she watched what unfolded before her.

Voight ran back to his team, "Did anyone see what just happened!?"

Jay was the one to respond, "Someone threw that chair at the window to break the glass. Look!"

Above the broken wooden chair dis guarded on the grass was a girl being hung out the broken window. Her legs dangled as if she were a dumbie, her lack of movement worried both cops and paramedics on scene. The person holding onto her was a young man wearing a hoodie.

He looked up when his arms were fully extended and the girl was still 7 feet from the ground.

"She's been shot!" he yelled to them.

The paramedics watched as the ground of detectives talked quickly among themselves, finally they came to a conclusion and jumped into action. Everyone going to their SUV's and pulling out black shields. With the black metal raised over their heads they began walking in a huddle toward the handing girl.

They were about a foot away when more shots rang out and the girl was dropped, followed by the boy who jumped out after her. The team moved fast, grabbing the students and pulling them quickly toward the waiting paramedics.

"The girls passed out." Erin Lindsay in formed them. "Looks like she was shot in the left leg."

"Thanks we got them from here." Shay told her before speaking into her radio. "We're going to need you to roll available buses to our location, looks like there will be more causalities before the day is done."

"Copy 61, ambo 36 and 18 are en-route."

As gabby put gauze onto the bleeding girl she heard the detectives question the male student behind them.

"Shay take over." Gabby ordered, she needed to check on the other student.

Without fear for the detectives Gabby made her way over, "I need to check him out."

"You can have him when we're done." Voight said, leaving no room to question.

But Gabby was not one of his detectives. She was the PIC on Ambulance 61 and she wasn't going to endanger a patient because the detectives needed answers.

"You can question him when I'm done making sure he's not going to drop any second." She glared at the older man, aware the other detectives, including her brother, were watching her.

"He doesn't leave until we get his statement."

Gabby nodded, it would only take a couple minutes to check the boy over completely.

Voight turned back to his team, "The shooter has gone active, we aren't going to wait for SWAT. We breach in 5, everyone get ready."

"Dawson!" Shay called out to her partner. "We need to get her to the hospital, she needs a transfusion."

Gabby turned back to the boy. "I guess you're riding with us."

A cop in uniform stepped forward, Gabby knew her from the district, Kim.

"I have to ride with you."

Shay looked at her. "There is no room in the ambo, you can follow us. Let's go Dawson!"

Dawson turned back to Kim. "Does your Radio connect to the detectives?" She nodded. Gabby stepped into her space and pressed the button. "The is Gabby Dawson. Ambulance 61 responded to a call this morning at Rockway Middle school, a football player fell of the bleachers and broke his leg. Just thought you should know."

There was a couple seconds of silents before Sargent Voight responded. "Noted."

Gabby nodded to Kim to follow them before pulling herself and the male student into the back of the ambulance.

.

"This is ridiculous Chief." Kelly fumed removing his mask. "Whoever this joker is, is playing with us. Two fires back to back?"

Chief Boden nodded, he was hopping it wouldn't be the case, "I'll contact arson when we get back to the house."

Casey sighed, "I'll call intelligence, see if this might be related to a case of theirs."

"Call the front desk." Boden instructed. "Intelligence responded to a school shooting not too long ago." Casey squinted at him.

Severide put the clues together faster than the truck lieutenant, "Shay and Dawson are one of the ambulances on scene?"

Boden nodded, it was his job to know where all his people were at any given moment, in case anything were to happen.

"They transported a victim to Chicago med, they'll make it back to the house before we do."

Casey smiled, happy to know that both girls were alright.

"If either of you can think of anything else, similar about the fires. Make sure it goes in your reports."

"Yes Chief."

Boden watched his men pack away their trucks, he remembered a couple month back house 51 got called to a fire. It had started in the bedroom and there were traces of gasoline, they'd all been happy that nobody had been home at the time. The chief had forgotten about it till now, it was around the time CPD was trying to catch the serial rapist who'd set their victims bedrooms on fire. There were a couple places that were burned that had no connection to CPDs case.

The chief made a mental notes to find out which fire's didn't match the rapists MO and investigate. This arsonist might have been active for longer than they realized.

.

"I'm starving." Shay groaned as she pulled ambulance 61 into the empty fire house.

"Let's hope Peter Mills had some time between runs to cook up some lunch."

"If he did there is definitely a plate in the fridge with your name on it." Shay chuckled getting out of the ambo.

Gabby rolled her eyes, "Shut up, Casey doesn't need to hear you saying things like that."

"Why is there something going on between you and Pe-"

"I'm going to stop you right there Leslie Shay. Peter Mills and I were a one night thing back when Matt was engaged I might add."

"Then why is he still saving you left overs?"

"I don't know. He just does out of habit."

"And Matt doesn't have a problem with it?"

"He just." Gabby sighed walking inside. "Doesn't like that Mills feels the need to 'look out for me' I don't know."

"Well, Well. And how exactly does young Matthew feel about your secret admirer?"

"What?" Gabby followed Shay's gaze to a bouquet of flowers that were sitting pretty on the counter.

"There the same purple ones as last shift." Shay walked toward the bundle, searching around and pulled out the card. "It's also the same hand writing."

"You know it's a federal offence to open someone else's mail." Gabby commented, walking over to the counter herself.

"Sorry you missed the fire Gabby, hope to see you at the next one."

"It does not say that!" Gabby gasped pulling the card from her friends hands.

But her eyes scanned over the exact same words, giving her chills.

"Who the hell is sending these!"

Shay pulled her in for a side hug. "Maybe you should get your brother involved. Whatever this is you don't want it to getout of hand."

"Yeah maybe." She bit her lip.

 **I just want to say I've been blessed to never have experienced the horror of a shooting in my school. During writing this chapter I'm pulling from other police shows and the shooting from Chicago fire last season.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Dawson sat quietly at the small table behind the couch, laptop in her lap and headphone in her ears. She was behind on some paper work and didn't feel the need to get caught up off shift when there was free time between calls.

"Hey guys." Shay greeted as the men flooded the house. "What's with the face?" She asked Severide as she picked at the bun in her hand.

"Remember the hoax fire from last shift?" The blonde nodded. "We had two back to back. Same exact layout."

Shay's face paled and she sat up, arm pulling back as she launched her roll across the room, past the fire fighters and hit her partner in the chest.

Everyone shot Shay weird looks as Gabby jumped pulling her earphone from her ears, an annoyed look on her face.

"What is wrong with you?"

Shay hit Severide on the chest and then pointed at Dawson. "Tell her what you just told me."

Kelly hesitated before turning to face Dawson, repeated what he'd just said to the other paramedic. Gabby felt her stomach flip as her eyes swung from Kelly to Shay.

"Do you think that's what he meant by 'see you at the next one?'"

Herrmonn stepped between the girls, "Someone going to tell us why there is food throwing going on?"

Dawson seemed to shake her head in disbelief, her eyes landing on the garbage can where a bouquet of purple flours had been thrown.

"Gabby?" Matt asked, watching her mocha skin pale.

Shay stood and walked to the garbage pulling the flours out. "I think you should call your brother now." Finding the card she handed it across the table to Kelly.

The firefighter took a second to read the card before he looked wide eyed at Dawson. "This from the same guy?"

Gabby shrugged, "It's not signed. But the penmanship is the same, the card and the flours are the same."

"What's it say?" Matt asked, reaching out for the card when Severide held it out.

"Did you tell Chief about this?" he asked his girlfriend.

"You guys haven't been back since they arrived." She responded.

"We need to get CPD involved."

"Woah-" Gabby started to interject.

"This guy knows where you live Gabby!"

Shay stepped up, "Wait what?"

Gabby cleared her throat, "When we got home from last shift, there were flowers waiting. The card said the same thing as the one from the fire house."

"You didn't tell me that."

"Well I didn't think flowers were going to become a regular occurrence." Matt laid a hand on Gabby's shoulder, he could tell she was getting worked up.

"As union rep." Mouch started. "Any signs of threat needs to be reported."

Gabby stood, Matt's hand falling from her shoulder. "I'm going to talk to Antonio after shift alright. I appreciate the concern but I'm good."

Shay shook her head, falling back into her seat beside Kelly. His worried expression matching hers.

"I don't like this." Shay muttered to him.

Kelly squeezed her knee. "We'll look after her."

Once Shay nodded, Kelly caught Matt's attention and nodded toward Boden's office. Even if Dawson wasn't going to come with them, they still needed to report this to Boden.

.

After Gabby left the common room she walked into the bunk area where who phone had been left to charge. She thought about calling her brother and leaving a message. He'd get it whenever he was done with the school shooting investigation and get back to her eventually. When she went to hit call on his number, Gabby quickly canceled. Groaning she fell back onto her bed and folded her arms over her stomach as she thought about her options, she knew she had to call the police. Her brother wasn't the only cop in Chicago, weighing her options Gabby decided to call Ruzek.

The detective was in the same unit as her brother, but she trusted Adam to do some investigation for her on the down low. After figuring out what she wanted to say Gabby called his number, as expected it went to voice mail.

"Hey Ruzek, it's Gabby Dawson calling. I have something that I could use your help with. I don't want to get into over voicemail so when you have a chance call me back. Oh, and don't tell my brother I called. Thanks."

Deciding she wasn't ready to head back out to face everyone yet, Gabby got comfortable in the single bed ready to rest her eyes.

The PA system going off moments later, calling for Ambulance 61 to a heart attack victim.

"Seriously?" Gabby groaned, "What is with this day!?"

.

Matt shot Kelly a knowing look when dispatch called ambulance 61 out on another call. Kelly shrugged his shoulders awkwardly, everyone knew better than to mention slow or fast days while on shift.

"What did you two want to talk to me about?" Boden asked, leaning back against his desk.

Matt took the lead, this was his girlfriend they were going to be talking about, "There were some flowers left for Gabby when she got back from a call today. They were the same kind she'd gotten previous shift, both here and at our place."

Boden looked between the two men, the serious looks on both his lieutenants faces told him that information meant something important.

Kelly stepped in, "The flowers today came after the second house fire Chief."

"Okay?" He still wasn't getting it.

Matt cleared his throat. "They all came with a card. The ones from last shifted referenced the kid who fell in the river, comforting Gabby. Unless this person just assumed the kid was dead, there is no way that information was released to the public before those flowers ended up in front of the fire house. This is the card from today." Matt handed the folded paper to the Chief.

Boden re read the words three times before looking up at the men in front of him. If he understood the words in front of him correctly, then he knew what this meeting was about.

"You think whoever is setting those fires is doing it for Dawson?"

"I'm saying we've had 3 fires in the last two shifts, the same MO and each time flowers have been sent directly to one of our paramedics." Matt chose his words differently this time, he didn't want to come off as some jealous boyfriend mad someone was sending his girl flowers. This was serious and he knew Boden could see that.

"What does Gabby say about this?"

"I don't know if she had the chance before getting the call but she's going to call her brother down at the district, see if there is something he can do on his end."

Chief nodded. "Alright, we'll keep an eye on her for the rest of shift. You come to me at the beginning of next shift and give me an update."

Both men nodded before exiting the office. Really the detective at the 21 district were the only ones who could do some real investigating. The fire men will just have to watch Gabby's back until then, and they would.

.

Dawson prepared the rig, while Shay was in the bathroom cleaning the blood off her hands. While on the ride to the hospital the heart attack victim started vomiting blood. The man had bit down on his tongue in pain, almost taking it clean off. While Shay was trying to clean the mess it ended up hall over her hands and arms.

Hearing her phone going off in the front of the Ambo Gabby jogged around to answer, the name across her scene making her hesitate wither to pick up or not.

"Ruzek hey."

"Hey Gabby I just got your message. Everything alright?"

"Where are you right now?"

"At the district."

"Are you alone?"

"I'm in the break room, something going on?"

"I just don't want my Antonio to overhear, he's the stereotypical big brother; overprotective. I feel like become a couple just amplified those tendencies." Gabby muttered, her brother could be a tad bit too much sometimes.

"No doubt. What's so scandals you can't tell your brother? That firemen cheat on you or something?"

"What? No no nothing like that. There is just something weird going on in the past week. I've been getting these flours and cards, and it seems like they're coming from this serial arsonist. We've gotten some calls recently where bedrooms are being set on fire, the starting point seeming to be mattresses. No one is ever home at the time of the fires though."

The other side of the phone was quiet, Gabby figured Ruzak was thinking about Nadia. He cleared his throat but still stayed quiet so Gabby continued.

"2 out of 3 bouquets were sent to the fire house, but after last shift one was also left outside mine and Matt's place."

"I really think we should tell Antonio about this."

"I don't want to get him riled up over something that could be a coincidence."

"This sounds like a class A stalker to me."

"Which is why I called. I just want you to look into it. When I get back to the fire house I'll send you the name of the flower shop. Just do me a favor, look into it. If after that you think we should say something to my brother, than I will."

If Ruzek had it his way he would have handed the phone off to the other detective the second Gabby started explaining her situation. But if he just told her brother Gabby might not trust him enough to tell him if something else happens, better him than no one.

"Okay, I'll see what I can find out."

"Thank you. Oh and by the way, did you figure out who the shooter was?"

"Yeah Apparently the call about the broken leg this morning was related to some hazing that was happening. The kid with the broken legs buddy decided enough was enough and took matters into his own hands. Seem like there was some bullying going on before that. We're still questioning him."

"Get back to it, don't let me keep you. Thanks again."

"Yep."

The back door of the ambo were thrown closed, Gabby jumped in surprise at the loud noise having not seen her partner come back.

"Everything alright jumpy?"

"Yeah." Gabby forced a smiled. "Let's get back to the house."

.

The ambulance ended up getting called out 3 more times before the end of shift, at some point Matt had let it slip to both girls that Kelly was the "reason" for their especially busy shift.

Both paramedics slapped the bicep that was closest to them, Kelly grabbed both his arms as they now stung from the blows.

"That's what you get!" Gabby's sass shining through.

"You should know better!" Shay huffed.

The rest of the guys chuckled to themselves, but quieted as soon as the two girls send glares their way.

Matt came up behind Gabby, his hand grazed her back. "Let's get out of here."

She nodded in agreement, her bed calling to her.

Gabby hadn't told Matt, but when she got home and saw no purple flowers waiting for her she let out the breath she'd been holding.

"At least there isn't a second bouquet this time." Matt saying exactly what she'd been thinking.

"Yea." Gabby smiled, locking the door behind her.

"The guys were talking about maybe meeting up at Molly's tonight." Matt mentioned changing into some comfy clothes.

"You should go."

"And you should come.'

Gabby smiled sleepily at him, already snuggled under the covers of their bed.

"I don't plan on leaving this bed till tomorrow morning. Go have fun."

"You sure?" He didn't want to leave her by herself.

"Positive."

He nodded, "Okay. I think I'm going to try and finish up the bookshelf, get it done before tonight. I'll wake you before I leave."

Gabby nodded, already halfway to dream land. Too bad her dreams haven't been all that peaceful lately.

Whenever Gabby dreamed of fires, Matt, Kelly or one of the guys was always the one trapped inside. Lately thought it had been her, she had on everyday clothes. She could never see the fire but she could feel it's warmth, could hear Matt and the guys calling out to her. They never reached her, she'd always fall through the rotted floor or the windows would shatter inward causing her to wake up.

Usually when it happened she'd slide out of bed and get to the bathroom to splash cold water on her face to cool her heated skin. Matt had woken a couple times to find her missing in bed only to find her on the couch, trying to avoid sleep.

He always seemed willing to stay up and listen to whatever had frightened her, but she never told him. It felt almost cruel to tell her firefighter boyfriend she had dreams about being trapped in a house on fire and how he never seemed to be able to save her.

So she'd follow him back to bed and stay there till their alarms went off in the morning.

.

Matt groaned as he woke up to someone shaking his shoulder, Slowly Gabby's soft voice flooded his ears.

"Baby. Matt wake up." She sounded a little out of breath.

Rubbing his eyes Matt sat up on the couch, after finishing the bookshelf he decided to lay down for a quick nap before going out with the guys. From the time on the microwave clock behind Gabby if he wanted to make it out he'd have to get ready soon, Severide was coming by around 10 to pick him up.

Eyes focusing back on his girlfriend he noticed her eye brows were pulled together. "What's wrong?"

"I got another delivery." Stepping aside Matt spotted the purple flowers on the kitchen table.

They'd thrown the other ones out, so he knew they were the delivery she was talking about.

"What is this guy trying to prove?"

"I read the card, it say the same thing as the one from the fire house."

Matt stood looking around the room for his phone, "Did you call your brother? This isn't okay Gabby, he obviously know's where you live."

"I called already, it's being handled. Baby." She said to get his attention. "I didn't wake you because of that, I woke you so you'd have time to get ready."

He scoffed. "There is no way in hell I'm leaving you here alone."

"Matt, the doors are locked."

"He already has stalking down, what makes you think picking a lock is going to go against his morals?" Matt's pacing was a clear sign to Gabby that he was getting worked up.

"Baby." She stepped into his path, hands going to his shoulders. "I don't want you to worry."

"How can I not be."

"Purple flowers don't really scream phyco serial killer."

"Setting fires around town, doesn't exactly scream sane."

Gabby squeezed his shoulders. "We don't know if that's the same guy."

"Seriously? After that note today you still believe that?"

"Let's just wait and see what the police think."

Matt stepped out of her reach and grabbed his phone from the coffee table, "I'm still calling Severide to cancel." He said, walking past her into the bedroom.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

 **I always write these chapters at Sunday just before midnight to get them out. Hence a lot more spelling and grammar errors than I usually have. I've gone back and re-wrote all those chapters fixing those mistakes. I'm not going to write that late anymore, mostly because I hate re reading my work. That might mean I miss a couple weeks but so be it.**

"So I looked up what purple flowers symbolize." Shay said sitting up, elbows on the table.

"Why?"

"Because your secret admirer is trying to tell you something. Most people send roses or I don't know, some other popular kind of flower. Anyway! The point is you've heard nothing back yet from CPD so I decided to do some detective work of my own."

After Matt spend his night out with the boys, at home with Gabby. She called Shay to come over the next day to hang out, naturally she brought Kelly who had been hanging in the back yard with Matt, while they put together the new end table he and Gabby bought.

"And what exactly are you investigating?" Kelly chuckled, coming in to search from more beer, Matt following behind.

Matt walked over to where Gabby was sitting on the counter and gave her a small peck, after turning his attention to Shay.

"What Dawson's secret admirer is trying to say with the purple flours." Shay while worried, had found a way to amuse herself with the situation.

Kelly shot Matt a sideways glance as he stiffened up, after Matt had cancelled on him the previous night, Kelly knew the fire fighter wasn't taking this situation as well as he seemed.

"Just read it if your going to read it." Gabby sighed, she's also seen her boyfriend tense up beside her.

Shay cleared her throat before reading from her phone, "With its origins tied to royalty and ceremony, purple flowers represent dignity, pride and success. Whether grouped alone in a bold range of rich hues or mixed in with other colors to provide depth and contrast, an arrangement filled with purple blooms represents accomplishment and admiration."

No one seemed to know what to say to that. It would have almost been better if he'd sent her the damn roses! They stood for love, love from a stranger would have been less powerful than this.

Gabby leaned back on the counter, grabbing the beer from Severide's hands and chugging the liquid. It was past noon and besides a little day drinking wasn't going to kill her.

"Sorry." Shay mouthed to her, putting her phone down.

"Great." Matt muttered. "When's Antonio supposed to get back to you?"

"Intelligence was working the school shooting case when I called yesterday."

"You'd think Antonio would jump on this."

Gabby decided to come clean, "I called Ruzek."

"The rookie?" Kelly asked.

"He isn't a rookie, he's been with them for two years."

"But they pulled him from the academy early." Shay elbowed her roommate. "What?"

"He's good at his job, I trust him to look into this from me."

.

When Antonio showed up at her door 3 hours after Severide and Shay left. Gabby really shouldn't have been surprised.

"Why the hell didn't you call me!?" He barged past her, into the house.

"You were busy."

"I'm your big brother!"

"I'm not a little girl Antonio, I don't need you freaking out on me over the littlest thing."

"This is far from little Gabby, have you lost your damn mind? Matt said you've been getting threatening letters."

Gabby looked back at her boyfriend, jaw open. "I've gotten two cards that came with some flours. They weren't exactly threatening."

"This guy needs to be caught, he's a fanatic. Guys like him, always end up taking it too far in the end. It starts with some 'innocent' flours and next thing you know bodies are being found."

Matt stepped up beside Gabby, he felt bad her brother was laying into her so hard, he placed a hand on the small of her back to let her know he was there.

"That's why I called Ruzek. He's looking into the flower shop to see if he can get a name and Chief has already contacted arson to take care of the fire side of things."

Antonio looked at Matt, "This guys burning beds?"

"That's been the pattern, the mattresses are soaked in gasoline, the fire's stay contained to that area for a while before finally branching out."

"I'm going to assign a patrol to your house." Antonio decided.

"Woah!" Gabby waved her hands. "I love you big brother but it's really not necessary."

"No, what it's not, is negotiable." His phone already in his hands.

Gabby folded her arms and shot Matt an 'I told you so' look. He sighed, his hand on her back sliding around her hip and pulling her closer.

"Mouse has it sorted, someone will be here 24/7 until we can figure out who's sending the flowers. Is there anything else you can think of, someone you've seen hanging around the scene of the fire, save anyone who seemed a little too attached recently?"

"No." she muttered.

Antonio nodded, taking her word for it, "I'm still on shift, I'll come by tomorrow."

"I'm busy." Gabby snapped, she was acting like a child, yes, but he was treating her like one.

"Clear your scheduled." Matt walked Antonio out.

Gabby had retreated from the kitchen, leaving Matt to find it empty upon his return. Sighing heavily he followed the sound of Gabby muttering in Latin to herself. When he found her she was grabbing clothes from her hamper and throwing them, not so gently, into the washer.

"Gabby."

She didn't respond, though her muttering stopped. Turning her purple basket over, Matt watched the rest of her clothes fall into the washer. Gabby closed the lid, turned the machine on and slid the basket on top. When all that was done she spoke up.

"I told you I had it handled." Matt started to say something but Gabby spoke over him, "Now the cops are going to be outside our house, It is going to send the wrong message."

"What message is that?"

"That we are scared! Who ever this is is obviously watching me Matt. This is just going to egg him on."

"As opposed to what? You doing nothing and him escalating on his own."

"Or he'd get bored and stop."

Matt sighed, frustrated. "Gabby this guys is dangerous."

"Or some idiot kid fooling around."

"That, that right there is why I called Antonio." Gabby gestured for him to elaborate. "He's burning down buildings for you and professing his adoration with flowers! It's like Antonio said, he's one lit match away from killing someone. It could be you, one of the guys or a complete stranger."

"Or you." Gabby leaned into the wall beside her, "I just wanted you to trust me when I said I had it taken care off. No I didn't call my brother but someone in intelligence was working on it."

"I need you safe."

Gabby bit her lip, "Apparently we both are now, cops are going to be watching our asses."

Matt stepped to her, his hand sliding around her waist and over her bottom, pulling her into him. Gabby's hands slid up his shoulders and into his hair, their lips meeting sealing the end of their fight.

(Light sexual content)

Gabby gasped, Matt held her tight to him as they made their way into their bedroom. His hands spreading heat throughout her body as they travels from her bum to her waist, where one ventured further up and cupped her breast.

Matt pulled the elastic from Gabby's hair and let out a growl as his lips attacked her shoulder. Gabby's head dropped back, it felt like forever since her and Matt had been together this way. Gabby's stomach tightened when Matt used his body to press them both onto the bed, his face relax and his eyes demanding as they raked over her clothes body. His hands following the same trail.

When they hit the bare skin between the helm of her shirt and pants, he smiled at her. One hand gripping the cloth of her shirt, the other puling her up by her hand, working together to slide the fabric off.

Matt froze when Gabby dropped back to the bed, there was a purple tint to area just bellow her bra line. His fingers hovered over it, his eyes flaming, and not with desire.

Gabby followed his gaze to see what was stopping him. Seeing the bruise Gabby smiled, her hand covering his, but Matt wouldn't let her distract him from the spot. Her unoccupied hand went to his Jaw, it waited their softly until Matt's eyes met hers.

"It's from the massive pile up the other day. While Severide and I were inside the vehicle the dome light was digging into my side. All my weight was being supported on that sport, I'm not surprised there is something left over."

Matt watched her, his heart was beating so fast he ran his hands up and down Gabby's thighs, which were still hooked over his. The constant motion soothed him, after a solid minutes he focused back in on the beautiful girl below him.

"I love you."

"I love you too Matt."

The blonde swooped in, swallowing his own name on her lips. There were not interruptions for the rest of the day, it wasn't until the sun started to set that they untangled themselves from each other.

Gabby slid Matt's disregarded shit over her head, the helm barely covering her naked bottom. He lazily watched her, his eyes drifting shut before fluttering open again. The house was quiet, Gabby took the time to switch her clothes from the washer to the dryer, on her way to the kitchen for water.

Not to her surprise, once Gabby made her way to the living room window, she noticed the unmarked cop car on the street. She couldn't help but think, at least their neighbors wont have to deal with a squad car on their street.

Gabby knew Matt had to be up early the next morning for a construction job and decided to read some of her book on the couch. She tried to focus in on the words but kept finding herself staring at the garbage can, even though she couldn't see them she knew the flowers were still in there.

Deciding to take them out Gabby pulled the black bag from the can and tie it off, the bag wasn't even halfway full but it didn't matter. Pulling on her bots and grabbing the blanket from the couch, to hide the fact that she was only in her boyfriends shirt. Gabby made her way outside to the big garbage can on the side of their house, on the way back in she gave a small smile and wave to the officer that returned her gesture.

Chicago was a beautiful city but it wasn't without it's crime, Gabby hated to admit it but she did feel a little safer knowing their was an undercover watching her house.

Deciding it'd be best for her to get some sleep too, Gabby put her book back in it's rightful place on the new coffee table, the one Matt and Kelly had finished constructing that afternoon.

As soon as she climbed back into bed Matt's arms circled around her, Gabby shivered. She hadn't realized how cold she'd gotten from walking to the side of her house and back.

"You're cold." Matt muttered into her hair.

"I was testing the capabilities of our new bodyguard."

Matt scoffed, "Antonio wouldn't trust some fresh beat cop to look out for his sister."

"I have you." She pecked him on the lips. "They're just back up."

Matt kissed her shoulder, his eyes remained closed through their conversation. Gabby snuggled closer to him and found her self drifting off not much later.

.

"You're really here." Antonio kissed his sister on the cheek, walking into her living room.

"Told you I'd be back."

Gabby followed her brother to the couches, though she chose not to sit down. Instead she opted to stand in front of him on the other side of the coffee table.

"Matt's working a job." Gabby said, after noticing her brothers wondering gaze.

"You sure he's not escaping your wrath?" Gabby shot him a glare, but all she got back was a smile. "The guy was just looking out for you Gabs, I respect him for it."

"The both of you ganging up on me-"

"Woah, we are not ganging up on you. You needed help and Matt reached out."

The fight Matt and Gabby had last night was similar in nature, however there was still a little fire circling in Gabby's veins. Matt had already taken more than his fare share, her brother was going to have to share some of the anger.

"Ruzek was looking into it. If it had become a thing I would have brought it to you. Plus since when the hell do fire men and detectives get along?"

"Since when do you lie to me?" Antonio stood up then.

"It wasn't a secret, everyone in the damn fire house knew, as well as a guy in your until."

Antonio was about to fire back but the knocking at the front door stopped him. Gabby eyed her brother while moving toward the doorway. Of all the people Gabby expected to see, it wasn't her neighbor Miss Lynn from next door.

"I'm glad you are home dear." Miss Lynn had lost her husband two years back, ever since Gabby had make sure to stop and hang out with the elderly women. "I wanted to ask a favor."

Gabby smiled politely, "Sure, what can I help you with?"

"You've mentioned the line of work your brother is in, I wanted to know if you wouldn't mind getting a hold of him for me?"

Turning around Gabby called for her brother, "You're in luck, he stopped by to visit me this morning."

"Yeah?" He brother said, coming up behind her.

The small favor miss Lynn had in mind, lead to Antonio picking up his phone and calling his until and a couple extra cruisers. Within minutes their front lawns had turned into a bad episode of SVU.

 **This chapter would have been over 4,000 words if I hadn't decided to split it up. Chapter 6 will be coming next week :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

 **I'm sorry, I certainly didn't mean to leave you hanging for so long. I have so many fics on the go right now. I'm trying to finish my older ones so I can focus on my new creations. It is taking longer than I thought. Anyway, here is the new chapter. Hope you guys like it :)**

Apparently over the past two weeks Miss Lynn had thought she had squirrels hunkering down in her attic, because of the cruel fall Chicago weather. When she'd finally bought the non lethal kind of traps and ventured into the attic, Miss Lynn was disturbed to find one of her couch blankets and telescope unpacked by the window.

She's called the police on the matter but her case was low on their list, Antonio offered to go up and investigate while Gabby waited with the older women at the top of the stairs. Once her brother come down, Antonio confirmed that it looked like someone had been squatting in the attic.

Gabby was confused when her brother called Voight instead of a couple patrol cars to take up Miss Lynn's case. It wasn't until he mentioned that the window faced Gabby and Matt's bedroom window that her skinned covered in goose bumps.

"Sis."

Gabby decided she needed to take a look around the attic herself. The blanket was spread out with the telescope at one end, the evidence seemed to speak for itself, no matter how much Gabby wanted to push the thought back and deny it.

Climbing from the attic onto the landing via the ladder, Gabby noticed her brother and Miss Lynn her missing. She could hear the mumbling of Antonio's voice from the main floor, she followed it to find the two sitting on the couch. Antonio a pad of paper in one hand, pen in the other writing down everything Miss Lynn was telling him, anything was useful at this point.

Gabby stood off the she side, listening in. When the Intelligence SUV's and police cruisers pulled onto the street, the three walked out to meet them.

"Hi my name is Erin Lindsay this is my partner Detective Jay Halstead. Would you mind showing us where your attic is ma'am?" Miss Lynn smiled politely, leading both detectives inside.

When they walked by Gabby they shot her a smile, Jay reaching out and squeezing her elbow in comfort. It was more than obvious that either her bother or Ruzek had filled the rest of the until in on what had been happened to Gabby the past week.

"Gabs, we need you to unlock your door so we can see what vantage point this guy had."

Gabby handed her brother the keys, not really feeling like watching cops walk around her room. Police tape was even being set up to keep the bystanders back and out of the way. Gabby couldn't help but roll her eyes, with her luck the local news would pull up any minute.

"Dawson." Gabby looked up, only to realized Hank Voight had been calling for her brother.

Antonio exited her house heading for his boss, they seemed to share a whispered conversation, they eyes staking turns flickering to her every couple seconds. Gabby just frowned watching them until Antonio waved her over.

Voight took the lead, "I'd like you to come down to the district, answer some questions."

"All due respect, everything I've told Antonio and Ruzek is all I know."

"They don't know the details about the fires that have been set around Chicago, supposedly in your name. Where is your boyfriend? Matt."

"He's working a job today. Look I only know what he's told me about the fires-"

Voight cut her off, "That's a start. You can fill me in on the rest down at the district."

Gabby look over at her brother, her eyes and body language encapsulating her feelings as she asked, "Is that really necessary?"

"You're the only lead we have, this person is targeting you. It would really help our investigation along."

Sighing Gabby conceded, climbing into the passenger seat of Voight's SUV, her brother staying behind and lead the investigation at the house.

.

Matt finished his job at the Peterson's in no time at all, he even stopped to get a bit of paper work from his desk at work. He figured Gabby had dragged Antonio out to do whatever she'd planned to get done today, they'd stop for lunch and wouldn't be back till later, giving him tons of time to get the paperwork filled out.

With the thought of the relaxing afternoon ahead of him, Matt could't help but slam on his breaks when he turned onto his's street to find cops parked every which way.

Getting as close as he could Matt through the car in park before jumping out, running toward the yellow tape. In his rush he noticed black SUV's among the cruisers, which meant intelligence was on scene. He was also scanning the area in hope to find his girl, but he couldn't seem to find her anywhere. The worse possible scenarios running though his head.

"Sir I'm going to have to ask you to back up."

"That is my house." Matt pointed.

"Matt Casey?" Matt just nodded, his eyes still taking in everything.

The cop stepped aside and spoke into his radio, announcing Matt's presence. Before he could get to the first step of his house Antonio called to him for the neighbors front porch.

"Where's Gabby?" He ran over to Miss Lynn's yard.

Antonio raised his hands, realizing what Matt must have thought coming home to yellow tape and a yard full of cops.

"Gabby's alright, she's with my boss down at the district. He wanted to ask her some questions in a calmer setting."

Which the news hadn't shown up, a lot more neighbors, crowed around the street to take a look at what was happening.

"Everything was fine when I left." Matt stumbled over his words, still unsure on what exactly happened.

Antonio nodded, "Follow me. Miss Lynn came over while I was with Gabby. She found something."

Confused but wanting answers, Matt followed the detective up the Attic ladder, into the small space.

"I don't- you think he's been here."

Antonio moved back, giving him some space. The anger and disgust on Matt's face was over powering.

"Miss Lynn said she'd been hearing noises for over a week, thought it was squirrels."

Matt balled his fits, "I want him caught Antonio. I don't care what it takes."

The detective nodded, the thought someone had been spying on his sister for weeks now turned his stomach. He'd worked hundreds of cases like these, even before he joined the until. It usually didn't end well for the stalked, or the ones closest to her.

"You mind giving me a lift to the district? The teams going to take some finger prints and bag this stuff. They'll be out of here in an hour. I'd suggest you two stay somewhere else till we catch this guy."

"Let's go."

.

"The cheif, Kelly or Matt would be better suited to answer these questions."

Voight nodded from behind his office desk, "We'll be getting in touch with them in the next day or two. It's important to work all sides of a case."

"Gabby!" Her boyfriends voice pulling her from the interview.

Matt was speed walking between the empty detective desks in the bullpen, Gabby stood and met him in the office doorway, letting him pull her into a tight hug.

"Found this one shaking down our crowd control." Antonio tried to lighten the mood in the room.

"I would have called, I thought you'd be busy most of the afternoon?"

"Worked fast, came home to cops outside our house, I thought something might have happened after I left."

"I'm fine baby." Gabby kissed his cheek.

Matt looked at Voight for the first time, It wasn't a secret that they two didn't really get along. "You done with your questioning?"

Voight nodded, thought if anyone of his detectives had used that tone with him, they'd have been riding the surveillance van for a week.

"Stay near your phones." Voight called after the couple.

Matt and Gabby walked down the back steps of the district, as soon as the fresh air hit her face Gabby ripped her hand from Matt's, leaned over the stair railing and puked.

The blonde fire fighter pulled his girlfriends hair back from her face, hoping to keep it clean. His free hand rubbing between her shoulder blades.

Once her stomach stopped revolting against her Gabby stood up, her hands gripped the railing for balance. Matt's brown frowned, she'd yet to look at him.

"Antonio mentioned it wouldn't be a bad idea, if we stayed at a hotel the next few days."

"I think we are safe, who ever is doing this is nuts if they weren't spooked by all the cops showing up today."

"A sane person wouldn't squat in an old lady's attic to watch us sleep."

Fair point, "We work tomorrow, I at least want to go home long enough to pack our stuff."

Matt nodded, "I called an made a reservation at the hotel they have the firemens ball every year. Thought it was close enough to the station and home in case we forget something."

"There is no way I'm going anywhere until I rinse my mouth out."

"I have a water bottle in the car and I think some gum in the glove compartment." Matt's offer was good enough for Gabby, the taste of vomit needed to go.

.

"You were right, I won't be able to sleep in here thinking someone might be watching." Gabby told Matt, both their begs were packed, their work uniforms laid out on the bed.

"It will give both of us some piece of mind, Antonio called while you were in the shower. Said the front desk and security are aware there might be cops stopping by for check in regularly."

"Since when did our lives become a three ring circus." She was only half joking.

"You can't be perfect all the time Gabriela Dawson." Matt joked back, pulling her into his chest.

"I can try."

He kissed her on the forehead, grabbing their bag they both headed to Matt's truck. They decided to leave Gabby's car behind.

.

"You got the room with the hot tub." Gabby joked with Matt.

He didn't know what to say, "It was the only room available on such short notice. You are free to sleep in the lobby if you like."

"Baby I'm just kidding, this room is very nice." Gabby's smiled faded. "How long do you think we're going to be staying here?"

Matt knew what she was really asking, _How long until her stalker was caught?_

"I'm not sure, but the guy at the front desk said he didn't have anyone booked for this room till next week. If we are still here by then, we'll move to a different one."

"As much as I like this little hotel sleep over with you, I do hope Intelligence catches this guy."

"Me too." He kissed her forehead, dropping their bags next to the queen size hotel bed.

Gabby yawned, looking for her pjs, the adrenaline of the day having drained her.

"Climb into bed." Matt told her, "I'm going to call down to room service, pre order our breakfast."

"Wow. The real princess treatment."

"Only the best for my girl."

.

After their shift Matt and Gabby returned to the hotel they were staying at. They'd only been their one night before work kept them away. When they got back early the next morning they couldn't wait to crash.

While Matt had found it quiet easy to slip into dream land, Gabby was having a much harder time. After over an hour of trying, her frustration made it impossible for her to relax. Giving up, she decided to head into the bathroom and see if the Jacuzzi and some bubbles would do the trick.

After pouring the foam into the side compartment of the Jacuzzi, Gabby stripped down and sank into the bubbling warm water. Her body having no choice but to relax when it came in contact with the water.

"God this is amazing." She muttered to herself.

Closing her eyes, Gabby thought about her shift at work. Her and Shay had helped a young women deliver a baby yesterday. Lucy, the pregnant girl. She had a fear of the outside and wouldn't leave her house to go to the hospital once she went into labor.

Her husband called for the paramedics, hoping they could take her by force to the hospital. In the end, Lucy ended up getting a home birth and her baby boy was beautiful.

Which she looked on at the new mom holding her baby, Gabby could't help that her mind wondered. She found herself envisioning her and Matt's children.

"Hey babe." Matt's hands landed lightly on her shoulders, kissing the top of her head. "Couldn't sleep?"

Gabby shook her head, "Just thinking about everything I guess."

Matt nodded, walking around the tub so he could be face to face with her.

"I know it's hard, but you should come try and get some sleep. Denying yourself rest isn't going to do anything but hinder you."

Gabby closed her eyes and leaned her head back on rest behind her. "I slept almost 12 hours last shift."

"Yeah, but it wasn't a solid 12 hours. You and Shay had that call in the middle of the night."

Gabby reached out and put her hand on Matt's pajama clad knee. "I'm getting it when I can. That's all I can do right now."

Matt nodded conceding. He knew when he should let issues drop between them, and now was one of those times. While sleep was important to a humans health in general. With their job you had to be sharp to avoid life threatening mistakes. But he knew Gabby got sleep whenever she could manage and right now that had to be good enough.

"Besides." Gabby's voice turned velvet, her hand sliding up his leg. "I was hoping you'd join me."

Matt could help but smile, "Oh yeah?"

Gabby nodded, biting her lips while look up at him though dark lashes. Matt's cock twitched with that look, she knew how to start him up without saying a word. Pulling off his shirt and dark green pj bottoms and joined her in the temped water.

As soon as he was seated across from her Gabby made her way over. Matt secured his hands to her hips as soon as she was in reach and helped guide her to straddle his lap. They both chuckled when she slipped a little bit and almost went under the water.

"Maybe this isn't the best place-" Mat started to job.

Gabby shook her head and kissed him, "I don't care." she muttered against his lips.

Matt loved Gabby's body, other than what her mind offered. His girl was beautiful. Her curves were amazing and any time he was given the opportunity to explore her body he took her. He also relished in the whimpers that left Gabby's lips when he eventually made his way to her sweet spot.

When they were both more than read, Gabby pressed her hips into Matt. Keeping one hand around her waist, Matt reached between them and took his cock in his hand. After a couple pumps he rubbed his head up and down her slit.

The hand Gabby had running thought Matt's hair, suddenly gripped tight with the all the sensations she was feeling.

"Ohh! Matt." She gently bit down on his shoulder.

Lining himself up Matt slid into her. Not wanting to get water everywhere they moved slow, a combination of grinding their hips into each other and slow thrusts. Sliding his hands to the junction where her hips met her thighs, Matt leaned back and reveled in the sight of his cock disappearing inside his girlfriend.

Matt felt himself getting closer and knew he wasn't going to last much longer. Not with the way they were connecting tonight.

Sliding a hand easily between their wet bodies, he found her bundle of nerves and flicked his thumb back and forth across it. Gabby's body went rim rod straight and a wanton cry ripped from her lips.

"That's it baby." He encouraged, after a couple more pumps he followed her over the edge.

.

After another 20 minutes or so laying together, the water started to get too cool. Getting out, they wrapped up in the fluffy hotel towels and headed back into the main room.

"I'm starving." Matt said, looking at the room service menu on the dresser.

"I could go from some waffles." Gabby told him, climbing onto the bed not bothering to find clothes yet.

Matt nodded, Waffles sounded good to him too. After placing the call, he crawled into bed beside his girlfriend. Within the hour there was a knock at their door. Gabby excitedly climbed from the bed, pulling the towels close to her chest went to answer the door.

"Ahaha I don't think so." Matt scoffed, he jump up to stop Gabby.

He didn't want some bell hop getting a look at his girlfriend hair still went and dressed in a towel. Gabby with a roll of her eyes gave in and went back to bed. Matt followed her moments later with a tray of food and an big letter envelope.

"This was slip under the door." Matt explained when Gabby questioned the papers. "Must be flyers for hotel activities or something."

"Cool." She muttered around a mouth full off waffles.

Opening the envelope, she pulled out the biggest paper in the pile. when it turned out to be blank, she closed one eye and looked into the envelope. Shrugging she dumped all the content out on the bed in front of her.

There were a couple blank pieces of paper, and among them were photos. Naked ones. Of her.

 **Dun dun daaaaaa!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

 **Sorry for the delay. I had troubled with this site for a couple days, it wouldn't save my work and then I accidentally deleted what I did have saved.**

Envelope in the passenger seat, Matt pushed 90 mph as he drove toward the 21st district. The road in front of him was secondary, those photo's of Gabby and then him and Gabby the only thing he was able to think about.

Pulling up to the front of the building, Matt grabbed the offending envelope from front seat and stormed inside. Because of the on going case involving a detected from their district, when Trudy saw Matt heading toward the locked gate to get to the detectives bullpen, she unlocked it straight away.

Voight heard the gate close and looked up in time to see a pissed off, off duty fire man march into his office. He folded his hands and looked up at the man.

Matt threw the envelope onto Voight's desk, the older man looked down at it before looking back up at him.

"Matt."

"Where are you with the investigation, it's been days!" Matt said in an accusing tone.

Voight locked and unlocked his jaw, if someone of his team had questioned him in such a matter they would be on desk duty for weeks. Even Voight could see the fear beyond the young mans anger, he had a right to be with someone targeting the girl he loved.

"Antonio has been put in charge of this case, you can be sure he is doing everything to insure that who ever is doing this to his _sister_ will be caught."

"Those photo's say other wise." Matt growled, still worked up.

It is no secret that the firemen and the detective were not on the best of terms, ever since they first met things had been tense between them.

"I'm assuming the photo's aren't the kind you'd want going around in the family Christmas card?" Voight asked calmly, not making a move to pick it up.

Matt took a deep breath and shifted back and fourth where he stood. He watched the detective nod and watched as he reached for the bundle of photo's. Matt's fists tightened as Voight peeked inside.

"They were all taken thought our bedroom window. Some of are Gabby alone, the ones of us together have my face scratched out."

Voight closed the envelope and opened his bottom desk drawer to drop it inside. "I'll keep these, present them to the team as soon as they get in."

Matt seemed to cringe at the idea of everyone on the team getting a look at his girlfriend in less than nothing. He wanted to ask for them back, but Voight spoke up to ease his worry.

"I will give these photo's to Erin, she'll be the only one for the team to look at them. She'll confirm the angle is front the neighbors place, and I will explain the absence of your face. That is all anyone needs to know of these photo's."

"Thank you."

Voight answered with a nod, seeing the way Matt was shuffling now he knew the man wasn't sure what to do next.

"Where's Gabby, Matt?"

Matt seemed to realize his mistake, "She's alone at the hotel, I left her."

"You should get back to her. Let us worry about the case." Voight handed him his card. "Next time you can call me, I'll come to you."

Matt pocked the small paper and made his way back to his truck. He speed back to the hotel, feeling worried that he'd left Gabby all alone.

.

Gabby paces the hotel room, one minutes she and Matt were sitting on the bed looking at the compromising photo's. A second later, all the pictures were back in the envelope and Matt slid on his shoes and jacket and was out the door in a blink of an eye.

After Gabby sat on the bed stunned, she shook herself out of it and spend the next hour pacing. She wasn't sure where the hell Matt had gone and she was upset he had left her by herself.

"What the hell Matt?" She questioned when he finally arrived.

"I know." He said walked toward her, "I'm sorry."

"Where did you go?"

"To the district. I sorry I didn't mean to just get up and leave, it was like I couldn't think about anything but those pictures."

"I know." Gabby crossed her arms, she moved to sit in the small chair in the corner of the room.

Matt knew he made a mistake by leaving her like he did, he went over and keeled in front of her.

"Voight said Antonio is in charge of your case, but he'd only give the photo's to Erin to insure the angle's of the photo. Antonio wasn't see them."

Gabby smiled softly down at Matt, letting out a slow steady breath.

"Those photo's were from months ago Matt."

"What?"

"The photo's, they were taken before I ever started getting flowers at the fire station."

"How do you know?"

Gabby licked her lips, finding they suddenly felt unusually dry. "The comforter on the bed in the photo's were grey. I spilled wine on it one night, ever since then we've used the blue ones."

Matt shook his head, "I can't believe this, who the hell is this guy?"

"I've been asking myself the same thing for weeks, it's driving me crazy. I just want it all to be over."

"I know." Matt pulled her into a hug, he felt the same way. "It will all get worked out eventually, until then if it ever get's too much you can always talk to me."

.

Sadly two weeks later Antonio and the other detectives at the 21st district were no closer to finding the guy stalking Gabby. When they presented the findings to Matt and Gabby, Gabby questioned why Antonio was sure it was a guy doing all this and not a girl. He told her that since Matt's face was recognizable in the pictures, it meant the person who took the photo's was presenting jealous behaviors. Those behaviors generally fit the profile of a man who was building up to a crime of passion.

That fact frightened Gabby. She was worried that maybe the guy was going to come after Matt. The detectives couldn't be sure, there had been no attempts on Matt's life, or anything so far that would suggest something was coming.

So the couple left the station feeling less and less confident that this guy would ever get caught. There had also not been any more special delivery's to Gabby at their work or home, which the detectives told them was not a good sign.

"I'm so tired, I really hope this is a simple day." Gabby told Matt as they walked up the driveway to the fire house.

It was quiet out front, everyone was no doubt inside eating the breakfast Peter Mills had made for them.

"Take your bagel into the bunk room and try to get some sleep." Matt told her gently.

He had noticed the dark circled under his girlfriends eyes, he knew they were a result of her staying up most hours of the night.

"Yeah maybe I'll do that. Hey baby? I'm going to go home with Shay after shift. She's been asking for a couple days now and I thinking getting out of that hotel would do me some good. You should try to set something up with Severide or one of the guys."

Matt's heart beat a little faster at the thought, other than the paramedics were out on runs Matt hadn't left Gabby alone.

"Maybe I will. We could both use a night out."

Gabby smiled up at him, leaving his as they got to the entrance of the common room. Matt gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before Gabby left him to get some rest.

"How's she doing?" Shay asked Matt, when he joined her and Severide at the table.

Matt sipped his coffee. "As well as to be expected I guess. She hasn't really been sleeping much. We went by the district before work this morning, Antonio said they hadn't had any progress. The one lead they did have turned out to be nothing."

Kelly shook his head. "That's rough man."

"Dawson and I planned to go out at the end of shift." Shay told the boys. "Maybe I'll be able to clear her mind for a couple hours."

Matt shrugged slightly and drank more of his coffee, he wished something would be able to clear his mind of this as well.

The house remained quiet until four hours into shift, the call came over the radio requesting truck, squad and ambo to a structure fire. As the men and women of house 51 climbing into their vehicles they head the dispatcher also requesting police back up. What ever was waiting for them wouldn't be pretty.

"Let's go." Matt told Mouch, hitting the side of his door as they took off.

.

Once the firemen were out of their trucks, they were greeted by the a couple of the factory workers. One man seemed to take the lead and started to explain to the firemen what happened.

"Usually the generators are kept on during the night, it get's pretty hot with all us guys in there. The first guy here turns it off and the last guy who leaves turns it back on."

"The generators caused the explosion?" Severide asked, trying to get to the point.

"We aren't sure. The generators are kept on the second floor, that is where the explosion came from. One second we were working then the next the building shook, we evacuated taking the back stairs. I tried to open the door to the second floor, something was blocking it."

"Are there people on the second floor?"Matt asked.

"Not usually no, but I can't say for sure. Sometimes men go down there on break so it's possible. Men come and go, there is no way to make sure everyone is outside."

That was all the squad leader needed to hear. "Squad 3 with me, we are going to see the damage done to the second floor from the west side."

Matt nodded. "Herrmann, go with them. The rest of us will take the first floor."

The guys moved fast, from the smoke drifting into the stairwell Squad knew their was a fire, but it didn't seem big. Simple search and rescue. After the use of a couple tools the guys were able to break into the second floor. The open space was full of smoke and fallen concrete, the structure otherwise appeared sturdy. With fire extinguishers Tony and New house put out the small fires around the wide open space, while Kelly and Herrmann examined the blast area.

"Truck 81 is done with our search of the first floor, no causalities. We're coming out. Severide?" Casey announced over his radio.

"I don't see wires or bomb fragments. There isn't even a lot of structure damage lieutenant. Maybe the generator just malfunctioned, something broke loose."

Severide agreed there didn't seem to be anything wrong or sinister about the explosion.

"I'll radio the chief, get the bomb techs out here just to be sure. Until then take Capp and search the floor, make sure no one is in here and check on structure damage."

Herrmann tipped his hat, "You've got it lieutenant."

"Hey chief?" Kelly asked into his radio.

"Severide. How's it going in there?"

"Seems like an old generator exploded, could have been something with the fuse or there could have been a gas build up."

"You sure it wasn't a bomb?"

"Call bomb squad for a second opinion, but I'm not seeing any wires or plastic. In the meantime we're doing a primary search of the second floor to make sure no one was trapped or hurt when the explosion happened."

"Hey chief?" Herrmann came on over the radio. "Send in Shay and Dawon, we have two guys in here. Looks like they were hit with some concrete shook loose when the generator when boom."

"On our way." Shay answered.

Gabby shot a smile at Matt when they passed at the buildings entrance. He gave her a wink, going to join his chief by the trucks.

"You know the last time we were in a building like this, it was a lot worse."

Gabby shook her head. "It was so hot, even from outside."

"I thought we were going to lose both our boys that night."

"Matt was with Halie back then, he wasn't mine."

Shay smirked at her, "Girl please, Casey always had a soft spot for you."

"Shall I reminded you of a certain family Christmas party disaster?"

"Moment of insanity. How wouldn't want to be kissed by those lips?"

Gabby laughed, "Someone needs to get laid. How longs it been, huh? You've been saying horn ball crap like that all week."

"What can I say? You just do something to me Gabriela Dawson." Shay shamelessly flirted.

"You're crazy." Gabby continued to laugh.

"I'm a freak in and out of the sheets."

Gabby opened the door that would lead them to the second floor.

"I feel sorry for Kelly, having to put up with this at work and home."

"Kelly isn't my type, you on the other hand."

"Hey." Kelly said, hearing them approach. "Still trying to get into her pants?"He'd caught some of their earlier conversation.

Gabby rolled her eyes while Shay continued to play along. "What lucky pants they are, getting to be wrapped around that beautiful figure all day."

Kelly laughed and couldn't help that his eyes flickered down to his best friends girls legs. Even if she was in her paramedic uniform, a girl with a body like Gabby's could make anything sexy.

"Where are the injured?" Gabby said trying to get this derailed train back on track.

Kelly waved his arm in a 'follow me' motion, leading the girls to where Herrmann had been left to keep an eye of the two factory workers.

"Logan here seems to be bleeding from his head, he's unconscious. Hasn't shown a sign of waking since I found him. Ben over here, he's in a lot better shape."

Herrmann was right, Ben was sitting up and the only thing that seemed to be wrong with him was that his angle was very swollen. The girls bent down and gave both men a quick assessment.

"Alright." Gabby said having come up with a plan. "Severide and Herrmann you take Logan out on our back board, Shay and I will help Ben out. Ben you think you can put your arms around each of us and hobble your way out of here?"

He nodded, already making to stand using the wall to keep his balance and weight off his injured ankle.

"What about all the stuff?" Herrmann asked, thinking maybe they could all carry it if they each took one thing.

Shay looked at the junk bags and other equipment her and Dawson had brought up. "We'll come back for it."

The firemen and paramedics made their way down a flight of stairs and out of the building. Casey and Cruz relieved the girls, taking Ben from them as they emerged from the building.

"We'll be back." Gabby told Matt, handing Ben over.

"I thought there were only two injured?" Matt questioned her."

"Yeah, we just left our junk bags and everything upstairs so we could get these guys out."

Matt nodded understanding, turning to head toward the ambulance with Ben. When he got their he heard Boden and Severide talking.

"I think the wires were old, it could have caused the machine to over heat."

The men were going back and fourth, coming up with reasons for the explosion.

"I thought you called the bomb squad?" Matt asked, joining them.

The chief nodded. "We just wanted to cover all our bases. The explosion was small and on a floor these men don't work on, if those two hadn't been on the second floor there would have been no casualties."

"Chief we!-"

"Put it down-!"

"Stop!-"

Three different voices where heard over one of the paramedics radio. Shay and Gabby were easy to make out, they were probably standing right next to each other, but the males voice was further away and muffled.

"What the hell?" Matt muttered looking back toward the building, as if he could see what was happening inside.

"Ambulance 61?" Chief asked, wanting to know what was happening.

"Shay? Dawson?" Severide asked into the radio, after the Chief hadn't gotten an answer. "Did you hear that other voice?"

Matt nodded. "The girl sounded startled."

Severide looked over at the other lieutenant, tilting his head in a 'follow me' motion. Before the guys could make it two feet in the buildings direction the ground shook and the windows of the first floor blew out.

"Oh my god. Gabby!" Matthew Casey yelled, running toward the smoking building.

Severide was right behind him, yelling for his roommate. "Shay!"

They could both hear their chief yelling for their men to stay put, another bomb went off moments later. This time the windows on the second floor blew out. Flames visible from the outside, these secondary explosion larger than the initial one that brought them out here in the first place.

"Severide! Casey!" The Chief yelled out in fear, watching his lieutenants run toward a building they thought to be safe. The building they'd allowed their paramedics to enter, the same building that reignited in flames as the result of an explosion. "Get our girls!"

All the firemen knew the structure of the building, after two more explosions, was severely compromised.

"Chief we can't send them in alone, let us help." Cruz ran over.

Boden felt his heart heavy in his chest, he feared the worse for his paramedics.

"We cannot risk more men going in there and moving things around." He watched as both lieutenants disappeared inside. "Severide and Casey have made their choice."

Cruz exhaled sharply, turning to stair at the building like the rest of truck 81 and squad 3's firefighters.

 **Daaaaamn! These cliff hangers huh? We've been leading to this for a while.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

 **Anyone else having a problem loading this site recently? I wrote this chapter off the site because every time I'd go to save the chapter it wouldn't. IDK what's going on.**

Gabby and Shay made their way across the second floor, walking around the fallen concrete to reach the supplies they'd left behind.

"I don't know Shay."

"Why not, Kelly and I have the room. If his last gift was any indication, your stalker is going to find you anywhere. At least our place is homey and not some hotel."

Gabby turned to look back at her friend. "How did you know he found us at the hotel?"

Shay exhaled all the air from her lungs, Kelly had told her that information in confidence. "Matt told Kelly about it. Kelly mentioned it to me on our way in this morning."

"Matt's be taking this whole thing kind of hard."

"Isn't PD even close to catching this guy? Antonio's the lead detective on the case right? This must be driving him crazy."

"I just can't wait till this whole dumb thing is over, I'm tired of feeling paranoid like someone is out to get me. It's also affected things at the fire house. Which is what I never wanted to happen."

Shay bit her lip, passing Gabby the rest of their supplies. "You haven't gotten any flowers or letters since that night at the hotel right?"

"Right."

"Maybe it's all over then... Maybe he's just given up?"

"I don't think so. What is it people say? "When the kids are quiet, it usually means they are doing something naughty." I think that delivery was just the first drop of rain before the down pour."

"That's ominous."

Gabby shrugged, there wasn't really anything she could do.

"Gabriela." A male voice called to Gabby from across the space.

"Sir you shouldn't be in here. The rest of your co workers are already outside." Shay said, stepping further into the room to get a look at the guy.

"Gabriela Dawson."

Shay realized the factory worker was calling out to her follow paramedic directly. The blonde looked over at her friend in confusion, Shay hadn't realized Gabby knew anyone who worked here.

Gabby was frozen in her black, eyes locked on the small black detonator in the mans left hand.

"Shay!" She called out sharply, trying to stop her friend from coming closer.

"Oh my god." Shay gasped, with her view no longer obstructed she could see what Gabby was seeing.

"Gabriela Dawson." The man once again demanded.

"Yeha!" Gabby raised her hands out in front of her, she tried to appear non threatening. "I'm Gabriela. Sir, why don't you tell us why your doing this today? Maybe we can help you."

The man smiled softly, his eyes zoned in on Gabby. It almost seemed like he didn't even see the other paramedic, maybe he didn't.

"You look beautiful." His face suddenly scrunched up. "Why isn't your hair down?"

"Sir what's your name?" Shay tried to question, but didn't get any response.

The man continued. "I prefer it down. Like how you wore it last summer, at your family BBQ." The man was lost in his own head, as if he was replaying the memory in his mind.

"Do I know you?" asked Gabby, this man looked familiar to her.

"Dawson!" Shay cautioned as her friend took a couple steps forward.

Gabby shook her head, letting Shay know she was alright.

"What's your name?" Gabby asked, hoping to reconnect with the man. "Do you work here?" She asked, knowing his clothes didn't match one of a factory worker.

He chuckled to himself. "You were entertaining the kids. Because Antonio and his wife were fighting." His face became expressionless. "They're always fighting. You and Matt fight a lot, don't you Gabriela?"

Gabby took a slow step back. "You're the one who'd been sending me those flowers and leaving notes."

The detonator in his hand, along with the realization that this was the man who'd be stalking her for weeks. Gabby knew what this man intended to do, she'd seen it in tv shows and heard similar stories from her brother.

"Did you like them?" He asked, stepping forward.

"They were beautiful." Gabby managed to say, she lowered her voice to speak to her partner. "Radio the chief."

The next five second happened so fast.

Shay raised her hands to press the button on the side of her radio, it was her movements that alerted the man before them that he and Gabby were not alone.

"Chief we!-" Shay started to speak, to get someone to contact Antonio or anyone of the detectives looking for this guy.

"Put it down-!" The man yelled, raising his left arm higher in a threatening motion.

"Stop!-" Gabby yelled, trying to get back control of the situation.

The moment escalated, "Go!" Gabby yelled to her partner.

Before she could even turn around, the floor beneath Gabby's feet started to shake. As not one but two explosions went off around her.

.

As the second explosion went off, both Lieutenants froze in pace. Behind them, they could hear their Chief calling for more trucks and the police department. Anyone of the fire fighters knew that this had become a recovery mission. The structure inside would be completely compromised, they would need more hands to move the pounds of concrete that stood between them, and their paramedics.

Matt reached up to his radio, hoping to get a response from on of the girls. "Gabby! Shay! You guys okay in there?"

Severide tried after Matt had gotten no response, and like this fellow firemen he was met with silence.

"Squad three! Truck 81!" Severide gestured for everyone to follow him and Matt, as they jogged toward the entrance to the building.

The dust had settled from the explosion. From what could be seen, there was only about 3 feet of concrete blocking the stairwell. If they could clear enough space at the top, Severide and Casey could fit though, and start looking for Shay and Dawson.

"Hey." The manager of the factory came up to the group, they were already passing concrete down the line of firemen. "My men would like to help."

The two lieutenants looked at each other, they were both desperate to get to their girls.

"Put on your work gloves and get in line." Matt told them, turning back to work.

10 minutes later when other trucks pulled up to the building, they joined the line. After another 5 minutes there was enough space for the Lieutenants to fit though they climbed in together.

"Gabby!?" Matt called as he and Severide called into the stairwell. "Shay!?"

"Shay! Gabby!"

Both men mad their way up the stairs, their hearts almost jumped in their throats when they heard coughing coming from the landing above them. The guys forced their feet to pound harder, legs to move faster up their stairs, when they got to the top they only saw one of their paramedics.

While Matt was happy she was safe, seeing only Shay laying before him coughing made him panic, where was Gabby?

"Shay." Severide dropped down onto his knees beside his roommate. "Shay are you okay?"

Grabbing the oxygen tank from his back, Severide turned it on. As soon as he heard the oxygen flowing he took the rubber mask and put it over Shay's nose and mouth.

"Chief, we found Shay. Still no sign of Dawson." Matt updated everyone via radio.

"Deep breaths Shay. Just breath."

Matt looked at the concrete pillar, the pillar that was blocking the entrance to the second floor. Matt knew they wouldn't be able to move it by hand, he radioed Herrmann asking him to bring up the power tools.

Shay sat up as her coughing died down, the fresh air in her lungs helping.

"There was a guy, he set off the bombs." Her eyes widening, her thoughts coming back clearer. "Gabby! He's in there with Gabby."

Severide pressed his hands to Shay's shoulders, stopping her from getting up.

"Woah. Take a minute." He told her, "Let's get you outside, we don't know if there are other explosives-"

"What guy?" Matt asked her.

"No no, there was only one detonator. She was right behind me." Shay looked up at Matt. "I'm so sorry, she was right behind me. Everything moved so freaking fast. One minutes we were all talking and the next."

Severide rubbed her back in reassurance. "Let's get you outside, PD with be here soon."

Shay looked over at Matt as she got to her feet. "The guy who set off those bombs, he's the one who'd been sending all those flowers to the fire house."

Casey and Severide looked at each other, looked at the entrance to the second floor entrance, then back at each other.

"Where was she standing when the explosions happened?" Matt asked, trying to keep his cool.

Shay took a second to collect her thoughts. "I was closer to the door, Gabby had tried to connect with the guy, get him not to set off the bombs. She'd walked further into the room. When things got out of hand we both turned to run for the stairs. She couldn't have been more than a couple steps behind me."

"Gabby? Gabby can you hear me!?" Matt shouted, hoping that somehow Gabby would hear him and respond.

"Here are your tools lieutenant." Herrmann said announcing himself to the group. "Good to see you're alright kid. Where's Dawson?"

Matt nodded his head behind them. "Trapped inside."

Severide took the tools from Herrrmann. "Let's get her out, Herrmann you make sure Shay gets outside and gets checked out by the back up ambo."

"No." Shay disagreed. "No way Kelly. I'm not leaving till Dawson's out of there."

"Shay." Kelly's tone sharp. "You could be bleeding internally and if you die because we didn't make you get checked out, Dawson would kick our asses. You can see her when she walks out of here with us."

Kelly watched, it seemed like his roommate was going to continue to fight him on this. After a solid 10 seconds she finally conceded.

"You bring her out." Shay demanded, pointing her pointer finger at the firemen.

Kelly have her a wink, Shay knew both men would do anything to get Gabby out.

.

30 minutes later, half of truck and squad were standing in the buildings stairwell. Other truck companies had joined the line, and were clearing as much concrete as possible so that they could get into the second floor.

The other half of truck and squad were outside, on the back of the building. After 15 minutes of seeming to get nowhere inside, Severide and Casey had sent some of their men to try and find another way in.

"I don't have a good feeling about this." Matt told Kelly, the two were working hard, made apparent by how out of breath they were.

Kelly shook his head. "You can't think that way man. Another 10 minutes and we'll be inside, don't let yourself think the worst."

"Too late."

The two men fell back into silence as they continued digging.

.

Shay felt herself getting frustrated, Antonio, Voight and the rest of the detectives from their unit had shown up. They couldn't get inside, despite the attempt from Antonio when he found out his sister was trapped inside.

"Then how do you know he was the guy?" Voight questioned her.

"He called her by her full name, he knew things about her. Just the way he talked, it creeped me out."

"We need more to go on than just your feeling."

Shay bit the inside of her cheek to keep from lashing out. "He set off three bombs in that building today. That's not enough for you to be interested in this case?"

Voight smirked. "I'm just covering all the bases."

"I've heard you're not really a big fan of the rules." The blonde paramedic took a deep breath to get herself back on track. "He seemed to know Antonio too, he was talking about some family BBQ you guys had. He didn't seem like he was really in his right mind."

"What?" Antonio asked, this was the first time he'd spoken, his mind distracted thinking about his sister in danger.

"Yeah. spoke about you Laura and Gabby. I was say that maybe you guys know him, or that he knows your family. But Gabby didn't seem to have a clue who he was."

Erin stepped forward. "Someone from one of your old cases?"

Antonio nodded, he turned back to Shay. "Did you get a good look at his face?" She nodded.

"He didn't even seem to notice me, but I saw his face, don't think I can forget it."

Voight came back into the conversation. "Antonio get a hold of mouse. Have him put together a collection of photo's, anyone within the last five years who's come across the unit."

Antonio already had his phone to his ear, before the order was spoken.

.

Cruz and Mouch tried the back entrance of the building, but it was not an option with all the fallen concrete. Instead Cruz quickly ran to the fire truck and backed it up till it was along side the building.

The windows had been blown out from the explosion, once they got high enough it wouldn't be hard to see inside.

"A little more to the left." Mouch instructed Cruz on ladder placement from the sidewalk bellow.

"Got it!" Cruz said, getting the ladder where he wanted it to be.

On the way up Cruz prepared himself for what he might see. Just from the sound alone he knew the damage would be nasty. However what he saw was not what he expected.

"Oh my god." He said to himself, quickly moving to turn on his radio. "Casey, Severide. Stop digging."

.

Matt whipped the sweat from his forehead, the stairwell getting hot with all the able bodies moving around.

He heard the crackle of his radio and stopped moving, along with the rest of the firemen so they could all hear what was about to be said.

"Casey, Severide. Stop digging." It was Cruz.

At his words, Matt felt his heart stop, a wave of dread fell over him. Cruz was among one of their guys he and Severide had sent to find another way into the building. The fact that he was radioing meant that he had found something, his tone suggesting that what he found wouldn't be what they wanted to hear.

"Cruz?" Matt asked him, restlessly waiting for the answer.

"I'm looking threw the broken windows on the second story. The explosives must have been attached to the floor supports, there is no second floor now, the buildings just one big room."

Severide looked at his friend, saw the heard break on his face.

"Any sign of Gabby?" Severide asked what Matt couldn't.

"Hard to say, there are wires all over the place. If we enter through the first floor window we can do a search and rescue, quick and dirty."

Severide and Casey were already on the move back out of the building when their chief came over the radio, "The structure is compromised, too many bodies inside is going to do more harm than good. Severide you're call."

Both lieutenants know their chief hadn't said both their names, because both men were not equally sound.

"Casey, New house and I will go in. The rest try to clear as much concrete as possible, it will make our exit with Dawson less risky."

With that order, everyone started to move. They'd already lot so much time. It had been almost an hour since the explosions and there hadn't been any indication of life from inside the building,

Matt couldn't help but think back to when the hospital had been bombed during the marathon. Gabby had been inside on that day too, buried deep beneath the rubble. Somehow this was worse, the odds of surviving the same event twice had to be lower.

Matt had tried to stay positive like Severide had told him to do, but an hour was a long time to go without medical attention. A thought that no doubt was in the back of everyone's minds was, how long could Gabby go without medical attention before it was too long.

.

The tree fire fighters started their search left of the building. If Gabby had been trying to run for the stair case with Shay, the fall would have put her somewhere close to the left wall.

"Casey!" Severide called out to him. "I've got her!"

Matt moved quickly but carefully across the uneven concrete that use to hold up the second floor.

"She's breathing but it's shallow. She has no radial pulse, but there is a curodid" Severide started doing a primary exam of the paramedic. "She's bleeding from the back of her head. Not responding to voices-" Kelly picked up her hand and dragged his nails across her palm. "or physical sensations."

Matt took off his helmet, there was nothing left above him to fall on his head anyway. "Gabby!" He knelt beside his partnering lieutenant.

Herrmann got up, "We need a back board!" He ordered into his radio, moving toward the broken windows to receive the yellow board. "And have the back up ambulance ready to go!"

Once he had it, Herrmann made the 13 foot dash back to Gabby.

Together, they carefully got Gabby secured on the board and began carrying her out of the building.

Shay had made it knows to the other paramedics that she will be staying with them, while they took Gabby to the hospital. Antonio had also manage to push his way to the front of the crowd.

"Oh god. Gabby." His tone nothing but worry for his sister.

Before Matt could even think of something to say, Gabby was on a stretcher and being rushed toward the awaiting ambulance.

"Matt." Voight called to him. "We'll give you a ride to the hospital."

Matt looked up at Chief Boden how quickly reinforced that it was more than okay for his to leave and go to the hospital.

The rest of the guys were going to be here for at least another hour, there was still one more body that needed to be found.

 **I REALLY hope you guys like'd this chapter. Can't wait to hear what you thought!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Hank Voight stood along side Chief Boden, both men watching their men work. The firemen were inside, searching the rubble for the body of the bomber, while the detectives questioned the factory workers.

After some time Kelly Severide walked over to the two men, taking off his helmet as he got closer.

"The buildings empty. There is no one else inside."

Both men were taken aback.

"How's that possible?" Boden asked, racking his own brain for an answer.

Kelly sighed, "There is no way he got out after the bombs went off. Shay said he was near the back of the room. Maybe he went out the back, before the floor gave out."

Hank nodded, walking away to collect his detectives. This had now turned into a man hunt, hopefully when mouse completed a photo line up, Leslie Shay would be able to pick out the man responsible.

"I don't get it Chief. Cruz and Mouch were around back, not more than 2 minutes after the explosion, they should have seen someone trying to get away."

Boden knew his squad lieutenant had a point, "Let's leave the police business to the detectives. Let's clean up and get to Chicago med."

Kelly nodded, started ordering his people to pack it in. They were done here.

.

"You can't tell me anything?" Antonio snapped at the nurse behind the front desk.

"Woah." Dr Rhoads said, coming up behind the detective. "I got this April."

Antonio, along with Matt turned to engage the doctor.

"My sister Gabriela Dawson, she was brought in my ambulance less than 20 minutes ago."

Dr Rhoads nodded, "I can assure you we have the best people looking after your sister. I didn't see her myself, but the fact that she's in surgery is a good sign. It means there is hope, hold on to that thought. The doctor in charge will be down to talk to you when they have something solid to say."

"Fine." Antonio nodded, "Thank you."

"No problem."

Matt felt like his legs were going to give out on his any second., he made his way to the waiting room needing to sit.

One by one, the guys from house 51 filed into the waiting room. Radio's on in case they got a call because they were in the middle of shift.

Antonio was the only one for the 21st division in the waiting room, the others were hard at work trying to figure out who the bomber was. Shay had done her best, but no on in the countless photo's she saw looked like the guy she saw today.

"How long till we know anything?" Cruz asked.

Shay answered when the only thing Matt did was shrug. "She's in surgery, when she's out is when someone will come down to talk to us."

"Antonio, did you get a hold of your folks?" Herrmann asked.

The detective shook his head. "They're away for the weekend. I'm not going to call them until I know what's happening.

.

After 3 hours of waiting, worrying, wondering and other W words, Dr Leithum walked into the waiting room.

"Family of Gabriela Dawson."

Everyone in the waiting room stood, the doctor folded his hands behind his back.

"I was told there would be a lot of you. When Gabriela was brought in, she was only reacting to pain-" Shay held her breath, drawing some attention for the firemen. "she was bleeding into her brain from the fall, the head injury is a sever one. She had a couple bruised ribs, but none broken. She has bruises from the fall but that is not concerning to me."

Antonio took a step forward. "Go back to the brain injury. What does that mean for her?"

"In this case, Mrs Dawson is not out of the woods. My team and I got the bleeding under control during surgery, but we won't know the extent of the damage until she wakes up."

"So she's going to wake up?" Matt asked.

"That is my assessment, yes." Everyone excited with the news. "However head injury's are tricky. We cannot know the extent to the damage until she wakes."

"How long could that take?" Boden asked.

"A couple days, weeks. I really cannot say."

Antonio shook the mans hand, "Thank you Doctor Leithum."

The man gave a polite smile before walking away.

After an hour Chief Boden stood up. "I know we all want to be here, but we are still on shift. Everyone back to the fire house."

Boden saw the look that came over his blonde lieutenant's face. Without a second thought Chief Boden named Herrmann truck 81's acting lieutenant, Herrmann nodded, giving Casey a pat on the back as he passed.

In a matter of minutes the waiting room was cleared, leaving Matt, Antonio and a couple other people waiting for news on their loved ones.

"Antonio." Will Halstead approached the waiting room. "Matt."

"Will, I thought you were at that conference in Michigan." Antonio stood up to shake his hand.

Will shrugged, "I send the interns in my place, thought I was more needed here. Anyway, Dr. Rhoads get stuck in another surgery, I'm here to tell you, Gabby has been moved to a room. If you follow me, I'll take you there now."

Matt stood, happy he was finally going to see that Gabby was alright for himself. He'd spent the last hours imagining the worst, he was in such shock when Severide had found Gabby in the destroyed building, he felt like he didn't get a good enough look at her.

"You go." Antonio told Matt. "I'm going to call my team, give them an update on her condition. I'll find my way after."

When Will left Matt at the door to Gabby's hospital room, Matt didn't wait a second before entering. Tubes and machines took over the space around Gabby's bed, She had a breathing tube down her throat and a couple bandages.

Matt's heart squeezed in pain, Gabby looked so small and broken. She looked pale, caused by the amount of blood she'd lost on scene and from the surgery.

"Gabby." He whispered to her, pulling a hospital chair to the side of her bed. "You gotta be alright baby. I can't lose you. After Hallie, well even before Hallie, you were there for me. I can't live in a word that Gabby Dawson isn't in."

Matt continued to sit and talk with her, telling her stories from when she helped him take care of his nephews. Talking about how grateful he was for her time, how great she was with the kids. How after those weeks together, he could imagine them with their own kids, even when Hallie was still in the picture.

"I just got off the phone with Voight, they have no leads on the guy who did this."

"If Shay was right and it is the same guy who'd be stalking her, you're no closer to finding him."

Antonio nodded, Matt wasn't wrong. "He bought the equipment from same place, we are going to find this monster Matt. I promise you that."

Matt dropped his head in his hands, "I shouldn't have let her go back in there."

"It's not your fault Matt, it is clear that the factory bombing was a set up. That guy knew what he was doing."

"We should have waited for the bomb squad."

"Hey." Antonio's tone pulling Matt out of his own head, "Don't blame yourself. Gabby wouldn't want that and I don't blame you."

The machines started going off all around Gabby, Both men jumped to their feet at the noise. Antonio ran out of his sister room, yelling for Dr. Rhoads. Conner came running from the other side of the nurses station.

"April!" Dr. Rhoads yelled.

"Behind you." She told him, following him into Gabby's room.

Matt backed up to the wall, "What's going on?"

"Gel." Following his orders, April squirted gel onto Gabby's stomach. "Her stomach's filled with fluid." Dr. Rhoads announce after the ultra sound.

"I'll call the OR and let them know you're coming." April told Conner before he could ask.

Before Matt could once again asked Dr. Rhoads quickly explained the situation when getting Gabby's bed ready for transport.

"Something in her abdomens ruptured, we need to open her up and repair the damage. I'll come get you both when I have news. Let's go!"

The team of nurses and doctors were out of the room in seconds, rushing Gabby back up to the operating room.

.

Shay along with the rest of the firemen in house 51 watched as Kelly Severide talked on the phone with Matt. The group had been sitting around waiting for a call from the hospital for the past couple of hours.

"Call back if you need anything man." Was the last thing Kelly said before hanging up.

The room remained quiet until Herrmann couldn't take it anymore, "How is she?"

"Casey said she was rushed back into surgery 10 minutes ago, he's waiting with Antonio for the doctor Rhoads to come back for them."

"Oh geez." Herrmann sighed.

Shay stood up. "Back to surgery? Did he say what happened?"

Severide tried to remember the medical mumbo jumbo Casey had just reiterated to him, "Casey said something about her bleeding in her stomach. I don't even think he's exactly sure."

"But her heads fine? There wasn't a re bleed right?"

Kelly shook his head, "He didn't say anything about her head."

Mouch turned to look at Shay, right now she was the closet thing to a medical professional as they had.

"What are her chances?"

Shay sighed. "If her stomach is bleeding, it means something inside, kidney, spleen, something ruptured and it's bleeding into her stomach cavity. That's an easy fix, they go in and stitch up the rip. Her head, heads are tricky. I don't know what to say. Gabby had a brain bleed, yeah they got it under control but there could be a clot, another bleed."

Mouch asked the question no one wanted to ask, "Could- Could she die?"

Shay crossed her arms over her chest, hugging herself, "It's possible, yeah." She muttered, but they all heard her.

.

Gabby was back in her hospital room after a whopping 2 hours in the OR. Matt noticed he had a little more color to her cheeks, they must have given her blood transfusions during the surgery.

Both Antonio and Matt stood side by side, arms crossed. They looked at Rhoads as he explained what happened during the surgery.

"Gabby's spleen ruptured, it was too much to repair so we got rid of it all together. While we had her, we gave her another CT, the results show that the blood flow to and in her brain is regular."

"But?" Matt asked.

"The swelling has not gone down."

Antonio pipped in, "And what does that mean?"

"It means that we are still playing the waiting game, if Gabby wakes up we'll go from there. We can't know anything, other than her case hasn't worsened, till she does."

Once Dr. Rhoads was out of the room, Antonio turned to Matt.

"If."

"Yeah I heard it." Matt confirmed.

Both men suddenly felt a lot less confident that they were going to see Gabby Dawson's big brown eyes ever again.

.

"It's been two god damn weeks!" Antonio yelled at Voight, thought they were closed off in the Sargent's office they knew the other detectives were listening in. "We still haven't caught the guy."

Voight pressed his tongue to the inside of his cheek. "These are your guys, your case. I'm as angry as you are-"

"Really!? Cause if it were Justin or Erin lying unconscious in a hospital bed, you'd be out cracking skulls not hiding in your office."

The older man pointed to the door, "Get out."

Antonio huffed and puffed a couple more times before storming out of the room.

.

"How's she doing?" Boden asked Matt.

Matt had managed to drag himself away from the hospital for a couple hours, to go home and take care of himself. Only because Leslie Shay came by the hospital with Kelly and kicked his ass to the curb.

He thought right now would be a good time to stop by the fire house to talk to his chief about vacation days.

"No improvement, Dr. Rhoads says there is nothing to do but wait. She's in a coma, now they are seeming less positive about her chances of waking up."

Boden felt for the young lieutenant, Matt had lost his ex fiance in a fire a couple years back. To lose another person he loved in a romantic way so soon after would break any man.

"She's strong, I have no doubt that she'll make her way though this."

"I sure hope so chief." Matt said trying to appear braver than he was feeling at the moment.

"I've extended your "Family leave" for one more shift. I know you want to be in the hospital with Gabby as much as you can. But I'm going to strongly suggest, you use those vacation days for after she get's out of the hospital."

Matt's forehead wrinkled. "I thought I had a lot of vacation days racked up?"

"You do." Boden agreed. "But I'm sure Gabby with need help getting back into the swing of things. I wouldn't want you to miss out on that time with her, because you used up that time now."

Matt knew he was right, but he didn't feel right leaving Gabby alone in there.

"Think about it. Give me your answer after next shift."

"Will do." Matt shook Chief Boden's hand, ready to head back to the hospital.

.

"A damn month." Casey said sadly.

Kelly and Shay had thought Casey needed a night away from the hospital, somehow they convinced him to come to their place for the night. Maybe Matt was in desperate need of a drink, or maybe he was going crazy with sadness in that hospital, but he took them up on it.

"I know man." Kelly patted his friend on the back.

Matt was on the verge of tears, "After Hallie. What am I going to do Severide? If Gabby doesn't wake up..."

"You can't think like that. She's stable right now. You told me she hasn't gotten worse since that second surgery right?" Matt nodded. "You just have to believe it'll work it's self out."

"The doctors say the longer she stays in a coma, the less chance she has of waking up."

"I've known Gabby for over 4 years. There's just no way."

When Shay arrive home with the take out, the boys stopped their conversation on Gabby.

Shay had tired a couple hours in and went up to her bedroom to get some much needed rest. Severide and Casey on the other hand showed no sign of stopping or slowing down.

They hadn't even realized they'd fallen asleep on the couch until Shay's voice woke them up at 9 the next morning.

"Seriously!? You guys couldn't hear that." She grumbled at them. "I could hear it from all the way upstairs."

"What?" Matt asked, rubbing his temples.

Kelly sat up at the same time, rubbing his eyes. "Someone at the door?"

"Honestly..." Shay sighed walking past them. "Uh guys!"

Both men jumped up at her worried tone, they rushed to the front door to find Antonio smiling at them. Matt half expected to see Gabby's stalker on the front step holding a bomb.

"Kim?" Matt noticed the police officer, she'd come by Molly's once or twice.

"Antonio sent me to find you, you weren't answering his calls."

Matt sucked in a huge breath, "Gabby."

"No!" Kim jumped forward, realizing her mistake. "She's awake. Gabby's awake."

"Oh my god!" Shay exclaimed, jumping into her roommates arms in joy.

"That's great." Kelly told Matt, using his free hand to squeeze his shoulder.

"She's awake?" Matt asked in relief, he suddenly started moving around Shay and Severide's living room grabbing his stuff. "I need to go see here."

"You go." Kelly told him, handing Matt the jacket he was looking for. "Shay and I will get ready, pack a small bag for things Gabby might want. You brought all the essentials from the hotel here a couple weeks ago anyway."

"Thanks." Matt told his friend following the officer out the door.

.

"Matt." Antonio greeted his sisters boyfriend in the hall outside of Gabby's room.

"What's going on?" Matt was concerned why Antonio was in the hall, instead of with his sister.

"Dr. Rhoads came down five minutes ago. Wanted to run a couple cognitive tests, he'll be done in a couple minutes."

"What. Why does he need to do more tests? Is she okay?"

"She's feeling a little nauseous from all the pain killers they have her on. They're also going to take her for another CT in a couple hours to see how much the swelling on her brain has gone down."

"And does she remember anything from the accident?"

Antonio shrugged, "Not sure yet. I didn't have much time with her before the doctors took over."

It was at that time Dr. Rhoads and April stepped out of Gabby's room, they explained that Gabby's motor and speech responses were right on track.

"That's great." Matt exclaimed.

"April will be back in a couple hours to bring her down to CT."

.

Gabby felt like her head weighted two hundred pounds, her throat was raw from when they had to extubate the tube from down her throat. Her mouth felt like she'd been sucking on a napkin, thought April had brought her ice chips for that.

Her body felt sore, but it wasn't too bad. The doctor said she'd been out for a little over a month, her body had time to heal. Now all Gabby could think about was getting back to house 51.

Dr. Rhoads and April had just left, Gabby thought about resting her eyes but seconds Later her brother came back into the room with Matt.

"Hey baby." She smiled.

Matt smiled at her, thought the redness of his eyes gave away the fact that he'd been upset about something.

"God it's good to see that smile." He told her, taking a seat at her bed side.

"Dr. Rhoads said no one else was hurt." Gabby wanted to make sure no one from house 51 was injured.

Matt reassured her, "Everyone is going to be really happy to see you."

"I not allowed to return to work for a couple more weeks." She pouted.

Antonio couldn't help but laugh and Matt just shook his head with a smile. Yeah this was his Gabby all right.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

 **Sorry I spaced on last weeks post. Hope this one can make up for it :) (Sorry for any spelling mistakes, wrote this all in just under 3 hrs)**

"This concussion is going to be a pain in the ass." Gabby commented to her brother, Kelly, Shay and Matt.

Antonio laughed, "Gabby played flag foot ball in High school, she ended up with a concussion after one of her games. She was so sensitive to light afterwards, we ended up giving her a pair of sunglasses left by our aunt or something."

"They were hideous." Gabby went on to explain. "They were round and as big as a doughnut, They were half white and half black. Looked like something out of an 70's movie."

"She wore them for months to help with the head aches. Looked like a diva, acted like one two." He threw in the jab and waited for his sisters reaction.

"Oh I'm the diva? Last time you were in the hospital you were such a sook."

Antonio looked at her in disbelief. "I was shot."

Gabby just shrugged, trying to hide her smirk behind her hair.

"So you guys are still looking for the guy who did this, right?" Kelly asked, changing the subject.

The detective nodded, "Yeah, I've given lead back to Voight, I'd rather be here. With the description Shay gave us, we've started looking into our families past. Nothing really came up on the cop side of things. I've also asked our parents to consider anyone who'd have a grudge on our family."

"But the bombing wasn't a solo incident to exact revenge, this guy has been sending me flowers for months."

"We are working all angles, this is just where we decided to start. Like I said I'm not lead anymore."

Gabby nodded, feeling her head throb at the movement and stopped immediately. Offering the small group a cautious smile to let them know she was okay.

"Sorry to interrupt." April said to announce herself, peeking her head into the room. "The CT techs are ready for us."

"That's my cue." Gabby joked, climbing for her bed into the wheelchair April provided.

"We'll be back shortly." April informed the group, wheeling her patient from the room.

.

Once Gabby returned from her CT scan, the guys were not in sight. She figured they'd gone down to the cafeteria to get something to eat and took advantage of the time to take a little nap. Gabby remembered Matt mentioning that Severide and Shay were going to be by soon, she wanted to make sure she had energy for them when they showed up.

Shay and Severide had met Antonio and Matt in the hospital waiting room, they hadn't sure which room was Gabby's. Even thought when they all got back to her room, Gabby was still sleeping the firefighter and paramedic decided to stay and chat. They wanted to know about PDs investigation and what Gabby's recovery was going to look like.

The group talked for up to an hour, after all the major and current topics were out of the way they moved on to idle chit chat. It was during the second hour when Antonio got called away, the others hoped that it had something to do with catching the guy who did this.

"Just knowing he's out there and she's stuck in here. It makes me sick!" Matt told his friends, feeling more comfortable to talk about it with the detective gone.

Shay nodded, "I know. I just want to kill him. I don't understand how he hadn't been caught yet."

"I don't know. All I do know is when Gabby get's released from the hospital I want to be able to take her back to our place. Not some hotel."

Kelly spoke up. "Man don't even think about that. You are both welcome at our place, we aren't going to let her recover in a hotel."

"Absolutely." Shay agreed. "My girl needs to be somewhere since and comfy. Besides we have those cheese bagels, you know how she loves those."

Matt couldn't help but laugh, his girl really did love those cheese bagels. Gabby had picked some up at the store once, she said Shay must do something to them because the store bought ones did not taste anything similar.

"Knock Knock." Doctor Rhoads said to announce himself, "How's she doing?"

Matt nodded. "She's been sleeping since she got back from her CT, is that normal?"

"With concussions, like April would have done about 20 minutes ago, she'll be woken every hour. It is important for Gabby to rest and sleep, but it is always important that we wake her up to make sure she's going okay. Lot's of sleep is defiantly normal.

Gabby must have been pulled from sleep by their voices. She woke up slowly, Shay and Severide smiled at her and Matt stood up so she would be able to see him right away.

"Hey, are you feeling better?" Matt asked rubbing her arm, nearest to him.

"What happened?"

"Nothing we must have just been talking too loudly and woken you up." Matt smiled at her sweetly.

Gabby frowned at him, "Was there an accident? Why am I in a hospital? My brothers a cop, did someone call my family."

Matt looked back at doctor Rhoads with worry, he quickly stepped out of the room to request Gabby's CT results as soon as possible. Once back in the room Dr, Rhoads stepped forward taking Matt's place beside Gabby.

"Hi Gabby. I'm going to shine this light in your eye and I want you to follow my finger okay?"

Gabby sighed. "I'm a paramedic, I know all the tricks. Are my parents here?"

"Humor me." Dr Rhoads said, starting the cognitive test.

"Antonio called your parents once you got out of surgery, they are going to get a flight. He stayed for a while but got called away for work." Matt filled her in.

"And how many fingers am I holding up?" Dr Rhoads continued with his testing.

"Do you have his number? Could you call and get him back here?" Gabby asked.

Kelly stood from his seat, "I'll give him a call Casey."

"Thanks man." Matt handed over his phone, he really didn't want to leave Gabby alone right now.

"Now Gabby you were on the job and you got into an accident, do you remember?"

Gabby squinted her eyes, after a couple silent minutes she asked. "What kind of accident was it?"

"You don't remember?" Shay could help but jump in.

Gabby looked to her side, finally realizing the blonde was in the room.

"Hey girl." Gabby smiled. "I don't remember what happened. We were on shift, there was a fire. I remember driving but then nothing."

"There was an explosion." Shay told her. "We were both inside the building when the blast happened."

"Oh my god." Gabby didn't remember any of that.

Seeing the panic in the faces around him, Dr, Rhoads interjected. "It is quiet normal for head injury's for patients to become confused. Remember she just woke up, things will go back to normal in a couple days."

Then Gabby said something that startled all of them.

"That poor kid, I guess Peter Mills got to see some action on his first day huh."

"What?" Matt asked, shocked.

"His first day?" Shay questioned.

"Who's Peter Mills?" Dr, Rhoads asked, not knowing all the firemen that worked at house 51.

Kelly walked into the room, handing Casey back his phone. "Antonio can't come back right away, but he'll try to come by in a few hours." Kelly paused reading the room. "What happened?"

"He's a firefighter at house 51" Shay answered the doctors previous question.

Matt elaborated. "He's been with us for almost six years now."

Dr. Rhonds's heart sunk a little in his chest as he suspected what was happening. He walked back over to Gabby and smiled at her.

"Gabby what year is it?"

"2002."

Shay feel back into her hospital seat, Matt paled and Kelly who was quickly catching up looked on in worry.

"Gabby who are these people?"

"Casey, Severide and Shay."

"And how do you know them?"

"We all work together at fire house 51."

Dr. Rhoads nodded. "Right. What is your home address?"

"5143 Sickamore."

Dr. Rhoads looked at the rest of the room, by the looks on their faces Gabby had answered incorrectly.

"What's going on?" Gabby asked, feeling frustrated with the questions and concerned with the looks of her friends.

"I think you are experiencing memory loss. once I get your CT scan back from the lab I will know more. Gabby the year isn't 2002, it is now March of 2018. You were brought in unconscious to Chicago med a little over a month ago."

Immediately Gabby burst into tears. Dr. Rhoads moved out of the way so Matt could comfort her. Matt sat on her bed beside her and pulled her in close, kissing her cheek.

Gabby pulled away from him and squinted, Matt was a dear friend and yeah she'd had a crush on him since she started at the fire house a year prior. Sadly he was almost married which she voice allowed. once again she was met with shocked sad faces.

Matt stood from the bed, if Gabby thought it was 2002, that would mean she remembered nothing about them. She didn't remember Haliie dying, didn't remember them getting together and being together, she didn't remember the accident that put her here.

"This is bad. She was fine this morning. What the hell happened?" Matt questioned the doctor.

"I'm going to track down that CT, but it's safe to assume that Gabby's brain has swelled. That is causing her memory loss."

"She's missing a whole 5 years!"

"I know it's scary. let me go track down that CT. I'll be right back. If you need anything call for a nurse."

"Shay?" Gabby turned to her friend, she was freaking out.

"It's okay Gabs."

Severide turned to Matt to try and comfort him. "It'll be okay man."

"What if she can't get her memories back."

"Woah, it's only been 20 minutes, give her some time. Though you might want to start off by telling her you two live together. Shay, let's go for a walk."

Shay caught on that Kelly was trying to give Casey and Dawson a couple minutes alone to talk.

"What's going on Casey."

Matt tried to smile. "You only call me that when your mad at me."

"I always call you by your last name."

Matt scratched the back of his head, "Not since we got together."

Gabby seemed socked by that news, she should be. He was an engaged man as far as she knew.

"You and Hallie got a divorce? I'm sorry Matt."

"We actually never got married." Matt said in the chair beside her bed. "Hallie died in 2004."

Gabby gasped, "How?"

"There was a fire at the clinic she worked at. I pulled her out, but it was too late." He swallowed down his emotions. "She was announced at the hospital. But I think we all knew before that, that it was too late."

"That's awful."

Matt smiled at her, he wanted Gabby to know he was okay. "It was a while ago now."

"She we are dating?"

He nodded. "Almost three years."

"Serious?"

"We moved in together a while ago."

"It's hard to believe."

"Why's that?" Matt frowned.

Gabby shrugged, "Last time I 'saw' you, I was climbing into the ambo and you were climbing into truck 81. Before the bell rang you were telling me about how you wanted to buy this house with Hallie, but you two couldn't agree on a place."

"I don't even remember that. I mean I remember not being able to find a place Hallie and I agreed on but I don't remember our conversation."

"Well apparently it was over 5 years ago so, that's not hard to believe."

The room was silent after that, neither one really knowing what to say.

"I'm still working with Shay on Ambo 61." Matt nodded. Gabby almost didn't want to ask but she did. "Did we loose anyone?"

This was horrible! He didn't want to be the one to retell her horrible news. "You know about Jimmy. No one else has died on the job. A few were transferred out and some transferred in. You can hear more about that later."

"That's good at least." Gabby was happy to hear they hadn't lost anyone else.

"Came pretty close to losing you."

Gabby shook her head, teasing. "You're a worry wart huh?"

"The woman I love was in a coma for months after a building collapsed on top of her. I'm going to be a little worried."

"What'd you just say." Gabby seemed put off and shocked.

Matt felt bad for being so graphic, "I didn't mean to say it like that. I-"

"You love me?"

Matt now realized what she'd meant, to her that would have been the first time he'd told her he loved her.

"Sorry if that was weird to hear. I don't want you to feel weird or like I'm pushing-"

"No, No. It's okay. I just wasn't expecting it."

Matt nodded understanding, he needed to keep himself in check. Though Gabby was trying her best to hide it from him, he knew her well. She was freaked out and overwhelmed and probably other emotions that were taking over her right now.

"I'm going to step out for a minute and try to get a hold of your brother. I promised I'd give him an update if anything changed."

"Wait. Maybe don't. I don't want him to worry about me while he's on a case."

"Right the case." Just one more thing she doesn't know about, Matt thought to himself.

.

"Hey, did you guys get a chance to talk some stuff out?" Shay asked Matt as her and Severide came around the corner.

Matt had just gotten off the phone with Antonio's answering machine, giving him a quick update.

"Yeah we covered most things. Hallie's death and how we got together. I've told her a couple stories but she doesn't seem to be remembering anything."

Severide gave Matt shoulder a squeeze, he couldn't image being in love with a women for years only to have her forget your life together.

"I know it's hard man. Just don't start freaking out, the doctor said it was normal for Dawson to be confused and once the swelling in her brain goes down her memories will come back."

Matt nodded. Kelly was right, it could be worse. Gabby still remembered him, sure they weren't close back then like they were now. They still had a bases to work from until her memories were returned to her.

"Just so you guys know, I haven't told her about who set off the explosion in that factory. I don't want to stress her out right now, she'll remember on her own."

Both people nodded, they respected Matt's decision and promised they wouldn't say anything.

"Casey!" Herrmann called out, as he Mouch, Cruz and Otis found them.

"What are you guys doing here?" Shay asked them.

Cruz held out the get well balloon and pointed to the small stuffed teddy bear that Otis was holding. "Chief told us Gabby was awake and we wanted to come see her."

"We won't stay long." Herrman assured. "We just want to see her for ourselves."

Severide, Shay and Casey looked around at each other, silently asking which one of them was going to break the news that Dawson wasn't exactly 100%. In the end the information was Matt's to share, he was Gabby's boyfriend.

"Before you go in there, there is something you guys should know."

Matt was saved by the bell, alarms coming from the Gabby's room behind them cut him off.

"April with me!" Dr Rhoads rushed by the group, calling for the nurse. "Gabby stay with us."

"She's convulsing. Maggie Help me old her down." April instructed as another nurse disappeared into the room.

The paramedic and firefighters in the hall froze, as what they were hearing was now recognizable as the machines going off in their friends room. Matt stumbled into action after being frozen for a few short seconds. He ran the 3 feet to his girlfriends room and ducked inside.

"What is happening?" Matt demanded to know, his forcefulness coming from a place of fear.

Matt watched as April and Dr. Rhoads tried to hold Gabby still, while her body vibrated harshly between them and the bed. Maggie was busy standing in front of some tray, pulling a liquid from a glass bottle into a syringe.

"The concussion Gabby sustained was bad and left untreated after the blast." Dr. Rhoads tried to explain while using his upper body to try and still Gabby's movements. "As an adult on the more serious side of things, a symptom of a concussion can be seizures. Maggie!"

"Preparing the drug. Alright hold her thigh steady." Maggie instructed, coming toward the bed.

Matt watched the girl he loved, flop around on her side. Her hair having fallen and was now blocking her face. All he had to look as was the doctors as they tried to help her.

After Maggie stepped away, it took a good 15 seconds for Gabby's body to become still. Once the doctor was assured by April would take Gabby for another CT and monitor Gabby when she got back to the room to make sure she took to the drug and didn't start convulsing again. Dr. Rhoads took Matt back out into the hall.

.

While the other firemen, Matt and Shay weren't legally family, they were the only ones reachable at the moment. With their burning questions, the larger group fallowed Dr. Rhoads into a small conference room down the hall from Gabby's.

"Why'd that happen?" Matt asked. "She'd been fine."

Matt looked over at Shay, in hope that since she was more medically inclined than he was. He hoped she's let him know that indeed, Gabby had appeared fine while they were in the room together.

Shay gave him a subtle nod, "She was, her pupils were the same size. She was feeling nauseous but only because of the meds she'd been given. She wasn't complaining of a headache."

Dr. Rhoads nodded, he had also thought Gabby had been healing nicely. However since she just had an episode that almost shook her out of her hospital bed, he was seriously second guessing his earlier diagnosis.

"What just happened in there was not good. Gabby suffered a concussion, then because of the circumstances in which she obtained that concussion she was denied medical treatment for longer than any doctor would like. She then was in a comatose state for the following 5 weeks. Most people don't wake up from a traumatic event, like the one Gabby went through."

"Wait a minute." Matt help up his hands to stop Dr. Rhoads from continuing. "She didn't just suddenly get worse, something must have happened. Unless I've been lied too since I got here."

"The earlier CT we took when Gabby first came into the hospital was unrealistic of recovery to say the least. But Gabby's brain passed every test, so we were hopeful for a recovery of some sort. Her later scans around week three and four told us, the brain swelling had gone down but had not disappeared. But when we entered week five and hadn't seen much of a change from week three, I was not sure that Gabby would be waking up."

The men and women in the room were shocked and shaken by the news. Doctors liked to be vague, but that fact that everything was being spelled out for them was frightening. It meant that there was more than likely worse news about to come their way.

"I'd been going over Gabby's most recent CT with another doctor here, when Gabby started convulsing. The swelling in her brain from the scan she got a couple hours ago shows us that there is an increase of swelling in the brain, which caused the outburst."

"How could she have gotten worse?" Herrmann asked, feeling like it was his daughter they were talking about.

"My guess is that, Gabby being alert and moving around. Walking to the bathroom and sitting upright caused the swell."

This started to make more sense to Shay, "That's why she had the delayed memory loss. Her brain slowly started getting pressed into the skull and when it was too much something had to give." Dr. Rhoads nodded.

"What does this all mean now?" Matt asked, seriously worried about the fate of his girlfriend.

Dr. Rhoads sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I'm not sure. What I can tell you is, Gabby has been given a sedative and hopefully the rest will bring the swelling in her brain down. After this I'll be going to the CT lab myself to look at the results of Gabby's new scan. After that we've just got to take it from there." He went to turn and leave the group to process everything he had just said, but then turned to add. "I know you all want to be here. However until she wakes up again, nobody is going to be allowed into Gabby's room. You are welcome to stay in the waiting room and if you go home we can call you back in once she's woken. But right now, for the sake of her health, Gabby needs to be in silence where she cannot be bumped, Mentally stimulated by noise or disturbed."

Once he was gone the small room became loud as everyone started to talk at once. Matt couldn't be involved in any conversation that was happening at the moment. Instead he left the room, hoping to catch up with Dr. Rhoads before he went into the lab.

"Connor!" Matt jogged up behind the doctor.

Dr. Rhoads turned, but did not say anything. He waited for Matt to make the first move.

"I need to know." He took an unsteady breath, not sure he really wanted to know the answer to the question he was about to ask. "Am I going to lose her?"

The time for bullshit was over, they were so far past crunch time it was scary. There was no more room for vague statements and pretty words. From now on out there could be nothing more than brutal honestly.

"I've seen people come back from a lot."

"But not from this."

"There is always a chance,-"

"I don't want your bedside manor, tell me how you see this going."

Dr. Rhoads planted his feet and squared his shoulders. "Cases like these, the brain is going to continue swelling. Blood flow will stop flowing to the different parts of the brain, until there is no blood left. At that point the person is medically pronounced dead."

Matt feel like he wasn't going to be able to hold down the half a muffin he'd nibbled on, "Thanks for your honestly." He managed to spit out.

"I'm sorry." Doctor Rhoads told him, before making himself scarce.

 **PLEASE share your predictions and thoughts with me! It's my favorite part of writing :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

 **Wrote this chapter out as a little bonus for missing last weekends update. Besides I wrote it today so why not :)**

Chief Boden pulled up outside of the hospital. Herrmann had send him a test when the firemen left Chicago med. He'd originally stayed home, not wanting to overwhelm Gabriela. What with recent news, he knew he couldn't stay away. Casey needed him, lord knows his parents weren't around.

The sandy blonde hair of Matthew Casey caught his eye. His truck lieutenant was sitting outside of the hospital, on a bench, head in his hands.

After making sure all this whits were about him, Wallace Boden parked his car and made his way over to the young man.

"Casey." He said to announce his presence.

Matt didn't make a move to sit up, he just continued to curl in on himself. The only reason Boden knew he heard him over the street noise is because he slid over to make room on the bench.

"I couldn't leave." Matt finally said. "I tried, but I never made it past the parking lot."

Boden realized that Matt must have gotten a ride in with someone when he found out Gabby was awake. The blue tuck not sitting anywhere in the parking lot.

"Herrmann told me everything that doctor said." Boden wanted Matt to know he didn't need to explain anything, he already knew it all.

"I always had Gabby. Even with Hallie, it hurt like hell. But she was there." Matt suddenly sat up. "Now she's not going to be."

"Now you don't know that."

Matt nodded, face expressionless. "Yeah I do."

Those three words hung between them, silence taking hold of the moment. Even the sound of traffic seemed to get muted as they sat there together.

.

"What are we going to do without her?" Shay didn't really mean for Severide to answer her as thought out loud on their drive home.

"Other thank you, Gabby is the most bad ass chick I know. She'll pull thought this." Kelly didn't know if he actually believed this, it was more like a mantra at this point.

Kelly knew the doctors were no longer expecting a positive outcome, but he couldn't go down that road. Gabby and Kelly had gotten a lot closer, all starting when she helped him get clean. Things were peaceful between them after that, but these last three years they'd really become close.

"I don't know Kelly. This is going to kill Casey."

Kelly exhaled loudly, "I know."

.

Even those who weren't at the hospital waited and prayed to hear good news. Those who were, were going crazy staring at the white halls in the waiting room. Matt Casey sat with his chief, just waiting and hoping he'd get to hold his girl once again in his arms. It wasn't till hours later, and thankfully after Antonio arrived, that Dr. Rhoads approached them.

Matt jumped so quickly from his seat he startled Boden, who'd been in the process of resting his eyes. Even though he wanted to jump down the doctors throat for answers, Casey waited in silence.

"2 hours ago Gabby came out of surgery, we repaired what we needed to. We've been watching her closely and slowly taking her off the drugs to wake her up."

"Wait." Matt jumped in. "Wake her up?" His voice full of hope.

Doctor Rhoads smiled. "Yes. Though she is groggy Gabby is awake and talking. We are very hopeful."

"And her memories?" Antonio asked, he hadn't been there but he'd heard from Matt what had happened.

Dr. Rhoads cleared his throat, he took a seat in one of the waiting room chairs, a couple moments later Matt and Antonio did the same.

"The brain is a delicate organ, Gabby's has been though a lot of trauma. With all the swelling and the bleed from earlier, I'm afraid her memory is worse than it was the last time she woke up."

Matt folded his hands, "What does that mean?"

"What does she remember?" Antonio asked at the same time.

"She doesn't remember anything." Dr. Rhoads tried to soften his voice, in hopes that it would soften the blow.

Matt got up and started to place in the small space. When she didn't remember their relationship that was one thing, they still had a friendship, they still able to have a conversation, memories together that they could talk about and build something off of.

"Is she going to get them back?" Antonio asked, sounding severely upset.

"In some cases when people have lost their memories they can regain it back. For some it happens immediately, some it happens bit by bit, some can't remember it all and some... Some people don't ever get it back."

Antonio shook his head in disbelief. "You think my sister is one of those people."

"There is always the chance that she could remember. But with the amount of trauma she's experiences in such a short time, medically I don't think it is likely. I'm sorry."

While he had been listening, it was now that Matt chose to rejoin the conversation. "There has to be something I can do, to help her get her memories back."

With a subtle shake of his head, Dr. Rhoads stood. "The best thing for Gabby is going back to her regular life, even if she can't remember it. The more of that she can be exposed to the better. As far as work goes, she cannot be cleared to do her job. Though I wouldn't oppose to after she's home for a while and becomes more comfortable with all you, take her into the fire house for a day. Having a support group is huge in recovery, even if the only recovering she can do is to start a new life."

Everyone have a small nod to show they understood. However none of them could find the words to speak.

"Right now, we have a nurse in with Gabby. You guys should go home and come back tomorrow. Right now it is important that she doesn't feel overwhelmed."

Matt wanted to fight it, he wanted to be with his girl. If she needed time and that was the best thing for her, he could respect that for a night. But only for a night.

On the way out, Boden offered to drive Casey back to Shay and Severide's.. Antonio would have done it himself but he had to pick his parents up at the airport early the next morning and needed to go see his kids.

"Matt, one more thing." Antonio stopped before getting into his car. "I'll have cops on you 24/7. With this creep still out there and Gabby not remembering anything, I don't want to leave her vulnerable."

"Thanks." Was all Matt managed to say, he just needed to get some sleep.

.

Gabby found herself feeling like she was floating when her eyes opened, She looked above her and saw a young man and a black women.

"Hi?"

"Hi Gabby." The man said to her, "We gave you some drugs to help you rest, that is why you are feeling a little funny right now."

"Gabby?" She asked, watching the man and women's face change into a neutral one, their smiles now gone.

"Are you feeling okay?" He asked.

"I feel like I'm floating. Where am I?"

I was quiet common for patience to feel confused after the drugs needed during surgery.

"You're still at Chicago Med, the surgery went really well."

Gabby started to become more alert and her eyes drifted around the room.

"I had surgery?"

"We had to take you back in Gabby. Just to repair a couple things but you did great." He told her.

"Gabby? Is that me?"

The man suddenly turned toward the other women in the room. They both exchanged a look.

"Could you tell me your full name?"

"Gabby-Uh." After a couple seconds of silence she looked up at them panicked with tears in her eyes. "I don't know."

"How about we start with me." He smiled at her to try and keep her calm. "My name is Conner Rhoads, I'm a doctor at Chicago Med. This is April Sexton, she works here as well. You're name is Gabriela Dawson, you work at firehouse fifty one as a paramedic."

Gabby shook her head, showing him that she didn't know anything about what he just said.

"Why can't I remember anything?" She asked frightened, she tried to think about her family, how old she was, if she had kids, her job and she couldn't remember a single thing.

Conner placed his hand on her lower arm, giving it a soothing squeeze. "Gabby I'm going to explain a couple things to you, would that be okay?" She nodded. "A couple months back, you were at work. When you went into a building with your partner a bomb went off."

"Is she okay?" Gabby asked.

Conner nodded. "Her name is Leslie Shay. You all call her Shay. She made it to a stair case but you were not so lucky. There was a second bomb that went off under you. You were on the second floor and it collapsed out from under you. You were trapped under rubble for a while before the fire fighters could get to you. You were in a coma once you got here, because you went for a while without treatment, after 5 weeks you woke up. When you woke up the first time you had some of your memories but not all-"

"What did I remember?"

"You're family and friends. But you were missing the last couple years of your life. The swelling in your brain was causing it, and it resulted in a-"

"Seizure."

Conner couldn't help but smiled. "Looks like med school really jammed that information deep into your mind. Yeah you had a seizure which resulted in the surgery you had earlier today."

"But I woke up this time with no memories."

"That's right. You're brain is a delicate organ, with everything that happened it is shutting down to protect itself."

"Is my family here?" She asked.

"Yes, You have lots of people who care about you."

"Can I see them."

Even thought Conner hadn't yet told those in the waiting room they could visit until tomorrow, he didn't want to tell Gabby that. "They were sent home, But I assure you they will be here to see you bright and early tomorrow morning."

"Okay."

"I have to go check in on a couple other patience, but April is going to stay with you tonight, and answer any questions you have, okay."

Gabby nodded, not interested in saying anything else.

But through the night she had asked April for a piece of printer paper and for the names of the people she worked with and her Family. The nurse did the best she could Listing out everyone from Chief Boden and Herrmann, all the day down to Severide, Shay and Casey. Gabby had been surprised to find that she was actually in a long term committed relationship with the truck lieutenant. After that, April tried her best to name the people she knew from Gabby's family. Her brother Antonio, her niece Eva and Nephew Diego, and their mom Laura. She knew Gabby's parents were both alive but were not sure of their names.

April also added in the fact that she worked at house 51 and that everyone who worked their were family.

Once Gabby had the list of all the names of the people that made up her adult life in Chicago, she felt a little better. She knew some of these people would be showing up to see her tomorrow. The anxious feeling in her stomach lessened knowing that she would at least recognized names and where she would know them from.

With that in mind she was able to find her sleep for a couple hours, but she still woke up before visiting hour. She had to admit she was extremely nervous to meet Matt. He had all these memories of her, he knew all their history and all she knew was his name. She didn't even know what he looked like.

"How are you feeling this morning Gabby?" Conner asked walking into the room.

When he got into work this morning, Gabby was the first one he wanted to check in on. It was only 6AM but already there were people in the waiting room who wanted to see her.

"My headache is better, but I still don't remember anything."

"I don't want to rule it out for you. But I want you to understand that the likely hood of you regaining your memories is slim. If you push too hard to remember it may only hinder your recovery."

"Okay." Gabby had to admit she felt disappointed by that news, that she might never remember her parents and how she grew up.

Last night after April had told her about Matt, Gabby couldn't help but ask if she had kids. She couldn't imagine not being able to even remember her own kids, but the answer had been no.

"I'm just going to do a quickly check up, make sure everything is alright. Then if you are ready, there are a couple people in the waiting room who would really like to see you."

"Who is it?" Gabby wanted a chance to study up on her cheat sheet before they got in here.

"I see you put together a list of names to help place everyone. That's a good idea. Last I checked, there were three people. Kelly Severide, Leslie Shay and Matt Casey."

Gabby's heart skipped a beat, he was here. She was going to meet her boyfriend for the first time. We'll remeet him. From what April could tell her, Leslie and her were close friends, and Kelly was her roommate and he was kind of like and older brother and Matt's friend.

"Looking good this morning Gabby. Do you need a few minutes or can I let them in?"

"My family isn't here?" Gabby worried, maybe her family wasn't close.

Conner saw the worry and wanted to squash Gabby's doubts. "From what I am aware, you parents were away when your accident happened. Your brother Antonio has been here a lot, but I think the other night he mentioned that your parents flight was getting in this morning."

Gabby nodded, excepting the explanation. "Okay they can come in."

Once she was alone again, Gabby played with he hair, which was down and wavy and checked her breath. April had brought her a bowl of warm water, a wash cloth and some mouth wash early this morning. Gabby had been in this bed for a while, from what she'd been told and wanted to try and look nice.

The curtain moved as the first person entered her room, he was blonde and tall and had pretty grey blue eyes. His eyes locked with her as he came in, and Gabby smiled politely, not really knowing what to do or how to react. Following him was a girl, Leslie Shay. At least that one was easy. Lastly following her was another man, he was around the same height as the first guy but he had brown hair and had bulkier muscle to him.

All three were looking at her with smiles and she looked back at them the same. They obviously knew of her 'condition' and no one really seemed to know where to start. But when Leslie Shay opened her mouth, Gabby knew why they were friends.

"So do you think if you manage to stay in here longer than any patient you get some kind of medal." She came and sat in the chair right beside Gabby's bed. leaving the two men standing at the foot of her bed.

Gabby laughed and bit her lip, feeling less nervous. "Next time Doctor Rhoads is in here we should ask him."

"You could at least get your picture on the wall." Shay added. "I brought you your phone, I figured you could look at old pictures and stuff. We also brought you some comfy clothes, figured when you were allowed to get up, you wouldn't want the whole hospital seeing your cute little butt."

Gabby blushed embarrassed, suddenly avoiding eye contact with everyone in the room.

"Shay." One of the guys scolded, Gabby wasn't sure who.

Shay shrugged, "Casey can back me up, Dawson has a cute ass."

Gabby looked up at her confused, before remembering that Dawson was her last name.

The blonde guy who hadn't been the one to speak before, Gave the blonde a disapproving look, "The doctor said we weren't supposed to overwhelm her."

"He also said she had to get back to normal, me teasing her like this is normal." Shay defended herself. "Speaking off."

Shay got off the chair and leaned into Gabby, she cupped her hand over the side of her mouth and whispered in her ear. "The blonde one is Casey." Before falling back into her seat.

Gabby's eyes looked up at the blonde man before quickly glancing down at the names on her paper and reading Matt Casey on her paper. The blonde one was her boyfriend, making the brown haired guy, Kelly Severide.

"Thanks." In reference to the bag of clothes they brought her.

"Do you guys want to sit down?" Gabby asked them.

Which seemed to spur both men into action, having not really realized until that moment they'd just been standing their like idiots. Matt suddenly felt guilty he hadn't even introduced himself, he was just so happy to see that Gabby was awake and talking.

Matt took the seat closet to Gabby on the other side of the bed, and Kelly pulled up a chair beside him for support.

"I'm Matt." He said awkwardly to her.

"Severide- uh Kelly. You can use whichever name you want." He said, equally as awkward.

"What do I usually call you?" Gabby asked.

"...I kind of depends. Mainly Kelly I guess."

Gabby nodded. "Kelly, Shay and Matt. One of the nurses here, she helped me make a list of names. I've been trying to remember them all, but it's hard without the faces to go with them."

"We can help you with that. If you want." Matt offered.

Shay added. "Like I said, I'm sure there is at least one picture of everyone of your phone."

"That would be great." She told them. "So how long have we all worked together?"

"You've been at the fire house for 9 years. You got hired on as a paramedic in training back when you first started out. Severide and I were both there when you got there."

"I rolled in almost two years later, your my PIC." Realizing her mistake, Shay corrected herself. "Paramedic In Charge."

"Seems like a lot of responsibility." She saved peoples lives for a living, she wish she'd remembered it.

"You're a bad ass." Kelly told her.

Gabby couldn't help but smile at that.

"I guess so, only bad asses can walk away from building being dropped on top of them, right?" Gabby didn't mean to bring everyone down, but apparently even with the extra time they were still sore on the subject. "Sorry."

"Don't be." Matt was quick to reassure her.

"I only know what people have told me." She explained. "Doctor Rhoads told me about the accident."

Shay scoffed. "Yeha, Accident."

"Shay!" Matt had told everyone before that he didn't want Gabby to know about the truth behind the explosion, Shay hadn't agreed.

"She needs to know Casey."

"No she doesn't."

"Guys." Kelly jumped in, "This isn't the time or place."

"Dr. Rhoads told me it was a bomb that took down the building."

"It was." Kelly told her, while Casey and Shay fumed. "But someone had been intentionally setting fires for months, we think it was the same guy who brought us to this building."

"Someone's trying to hurt you guys?"

"No exactly." Kelly answered. "This guy seems to be more interested in you."

Gabby's heart machine started to go off, beeping loudly. Matt leaned forward and rubbed her head.

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you, you don't have to worry."

April came running in, "Everything okay in here?"

"She just got a little upset." Shay told her.

"Gabby shouldn't been getting worked up like this-" April started to tell them, that they might have to leave if they were upsetting her.

But the monitor stopped beeping, Matt continued to tell Gabby she was going to be alight. That combined with the way he was rubbing his fingers through her hair, calmed her.

"I would suggest avoiding stressful topics." April told them sternly, before exiting.

"Sorry babes." Shay rubbed her leg. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"My heads kind of hurting." Gabby told them.

"What?" Matt panicked, imaging the worse possible scenario. "I'll go get the doctor."

"I just think I need some sleep." Gabby told them, she needed some alone time after what she just heard.

They all seemed to get that and stand up. Matt kissed her forehead, freezing as he pulled away. Gabby realized he must have done it out of habit and smiled to let him know it was okay.

"I'll just be down the hall if you need anything." He told her, following the others out of the room.

Once she was alone, Gabby let her tears slip from her eyes. She'd sat and talked to three important people in her life, and she couldn't remember a single thing about them.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

 **Happy Easter Weekend!**

When Gabby's parents and brother showed up at the hospital Gabby wanted to break down and cry. These are her parents, her family and she doesn't remember a damn thing about them. She spend over two decades with these people, so many memories.

It didn't help that her mom was crying, her dad seemed mad and pissed off and Antonio was being overly helpful.

After two hours of them being here, Gabby used the same excuse she had earlier. Even though they didn't want to leave, the doctor reinforced that if Gabby was tired, they had to allow her to get her rest.

Once she was alone, Gabby got up from the bed. Her legs more than wobbly, as they should be. She'd been laying in bed for over a dang month. Getting to her bag, Gabby pulled out a pair of purple sleep shorts, and a black v-neck tee. After getting dressed she slid on some white fuzzy socks and made her way out of her hospital room.

"Miss Dawson, you shouldn't be out of bed." A nurse Gabby hadn't seen before approached her.

Gabby turned her eyes on her, "I just need to be out, even for a couple minutes. I just want to do one walk around the floor and I'll be right back."

The nurse seemed to be debating with herself, but in the end nodded.

"Thanks... Oh and which way is the waiting room?"

Gabby was hopping Matt and meant what he'd said and stuck around. She needed someone to talk to, while that should have been her family she felt too overwhelmed with them. Matt seemed to accept how bad her injury were, probably because he'd been there.

When she came to the end of the hall, the small waiting room was empty, except for Matt. He lay sideways on a couch, using his hoodie for a pillow. She didn't want to wake him, he did look tired when he was in her room earlier. But before she knew it, Gabby's feet were bringing her closer to her boyfriend.

She bent down in front of him and rubbed his shoulder, feeling awkward.

"Matt." She whispered, not wanting to startle him.

He slowly came out of it, eye's fluttering open. Gabby didn't miss the smile on his face when he saw her. She couldn't help but think she must have waited her whole life for a guy to smile at her like that.

"Gabby." He sighed.

Bell's from someones machines went off down the hall, Matt shot up on the couch. When he saw her in non hospital clothes he'd thought he'd been dreaming.

"Gabby!" His voice louder this time around.

"Hi." She said, standing up.

"Everything okay? I saw your parents leave earlier. Are you supposed to be out of bed?"

She nodded, "I just didn't feel like being alone. I remember you said you'd be out here if I needed anything."

"Yeah. Course. You should have just texted me, I would have come in." He told her, standing too.

Gabby blushed and looked down, "I don't remember the password."

Well Matt felt like the biggest idiot, of course she didn't know her damn password.

"I'll unlock it for you, and take the password off so you can get it."

"You know my password?"

"Yeah, you told me that it didn't matter that we trusted each other, you wanted to share it with me. Said if there was ever an emergency, you didn't want me to be stopped because you were too prideful to share your password with me."

Gabby laughed, "If I knew me, that sounds like something I'd say."

Matt offered her his hand. "Lets go back to your room." He noticed her legs shaking.

"Okay." She smiled, accepting his hand.

As he lead her, Gabby couldn't help but think how natural he was around her. Her hand seemed to fit in his perfectly, as if it was meant to be.

"My parents were in to see me, with my brother earlier." Gabby told Matt, taking a seat in the middle of her hospital bed. Legs criss cross apple sauce.

Matt pulled a plastic hospital chair toward her, so they could sit and talk.

"I saw them on their way in." Letting her lead the conversation, knowing she had something she wanted to say.

"... It was a short visit. But I learned a couple of things from Antonio about the accident. Between all the crying and yelling that is. I wanted to ask you some questions."

Matt smiled at her, hiding his dread. "I'll answer as much as I can."

Gabby nodded, playing with the tape on the edge of her thigh bandage. "This person, they've been doing this for a while?" He nodded. "But we don't know who he is. But he knows who I am. When Shay mentioned it earlier, it seemed more like an infatuation thing. If that's true then, I don't understand how I ended up in a blown up building."

Matt rubbed his hands together. "We don't know. Shay was the only one in the building with you at the time. She said you told her to radio the Chief, when she went to do that, it set him off. He must have panicked and set off the bombs."

"Great, I don't even know what he looks like. He could be walking in here pretending to be a doctor, I wouldn't know the difference."

"Antonio has police detail on this hospital, and I know Shay gave a description of the guy. I could get a hold of someone down at the 21st and get them to sketch the guy, if that would make you feel better?"

"Yeah, that would be good." Gabby said, "Thanks."

Gabby handed Matt her phone, he made quick work taking a password off the home screen before handing it back.

"Looks like I have a lot of pictures on here." Gabby took a deep breath.

In each photo Gabby was smiling or making a silly face, when she tried to remember the moment it happened and couldn't; it made her heart ache a little bit. This was her family. While she tried to keep her face natural, Matt could see she was struggling.

"Do you want me to tell you what's going on in those photo's?"

Gabby looked down at him, seeing his sincerity. "Sure." She slid over on the bed so he could join her.

She slid her finger to the right and up popped a picture of 4 guys, Shay and Gabby.

"This is a picture at the firemens ball three years ago, that is you and Shay, and in the back is Otis, Jay, Adam and Cruz. Adam and Jay are detectives in Antonio's unit. Otis and Cruz-"

"Work at the fire house with us." Matt looked surprised. "I memorized their names earlier. What about this picture?"

It was of her, Matt, Shay and Kelly.

"This was from one night at Molly's. You took off work that night, you and Shay had a hard shift. Severide-Uh Kelly and I decided to get you girls drunk. We all ended up sleeping at our place. Some how you and Shay got our bed and Kelly and I flipped for the couch and the recliner." Matt smiled at the memory.

"We live together then."

"For a couple years now." Matt nodded.

"How come Shay brought me stuff from her place?"

Matt cleared his throat, "Because of this guy, we ended up stay in a hotel not far from work. After your accident, Kelly convinced me to stay with them, instead of wasting money to keep out stuff at a hotel."

Gabby bit her lip. "This guy seems dangerous- I mean I know he's been setting fires around the city and bombs apparently, but if we had to move to a motel, something bad must have happened."

"He took pictures of us in our house. It was safer, even with police detail, to just take some time and live in a hotel."

"The doctor said I'll be able to get out of here at the end of the week. As long as the swelling in my brain goes down."

Matt picked up on what she was really asking. "Even before the accident, you told me Shay was wanting us to go live at hers and Kelly's. Until the police catches this guy."

"Do they have room there? My mom was talking about me coming home with her." Matt's stomach dropped at the thought of that. Gabby looked down. "I know it's not easy, I don't know anything about myself or us. But I was hopping, you had a plan of your own."

Matt smiled, taking her hand in between both of his. "Hell yeah your coming home with me. I wouldn't have it any other way."

Gabby smiled back, happy to hear it. Matt was as much a stranger as her parents were. If she had any hope of getting her memories back, she needed to get back into a routine.

.

Gabby could not express how damn happy she was to finally be getting out of the hospital. Sure she was only awake for about a week of it, but it felt much longer. She could tell that Matt and her friends were happy about it too. The more time they spent together, the more Gabby was happy these were the friends she surrounded herself with.

"Home sweet home." Shay smiled, opening the front door as Matt and Gabby rolled up. "Look familiar?"

Gabby winched, it didn't look familiar in the slightest.

"At least let her get in the door Shay." Kelly mocked his friend on his way out. "I'm running to the store, you guys have any requests?"

"OOU! Get us some sour keys and nutella." Shay turns to Gabby. "Trust me, you love nutella."

Matt chimed in, "You practically live off the stuff."

"Nutella it is." Gabby told Kelly.

He winked. "I'll be back soon."

Gabby felt Matt's hand press into the small of her back. He guided her inside, leading her into the living room where the three of them sat down.

"You have a nice place. You and Kelly live here long?"

"Almost 4 years now, though we've lived together longer than that. We moved apartments a couple years back."

Matt chuckled. "They had to shake Otis somehow."

"Otis lived with you guys?"

"For a little under a year. He and Cruz moved into our old place. Kelly and I moved into that place."

Gabby looked down, she really hoped Shay and Kelly wouldn't get annoyed with her and Matt after a while. Even though she'd only been here for 2 minutes, she already liked it. Though she has a feeling the four of them are closer with each other, than they are with Otis.

Shay groaned, "I really missed you at the fire house yesterday. This guy Vatallie was with me on shift these past couple weeks, he'd driving me crazy. I hope your memories come back soon girl."

Gabby turned to Matt, then looked back at Shay. "I thought you guys worked the same shifts?"

"We do." Matt told her, confused.

"But you were with me at the hospital yesterday."

Matt sat up straighter, folding his hands. "I've been taking some shifts off, so I can be at the hospital."

Gabby immediately felt guilty. "I don't want you missing work for me. It's been almost two months since my accident, you haven't worked in two months?"

"I took a couple shifts here and there, Boden put me of special leave. Don't worry about it."

"I don't want you putting your life on hold for me!"Gabby stood up, suddenly furious.

"Gabby." Matt was shocked by her outburst.

"I didn't mean to- I'm sorry." Gabby sunk back onto the couch.

Matt rubbed her shoulder, "Dr Rhoads said moods swings were common with any head trauma. Don't sweat it."

Shay stepped in, "Even though you're out of the hospital, you should still get some rest. I'll show you to your room."

Gabby nodded, telling Matt she was sorry before following Shay upstairs.

Gabby took a long nap, missing out on the conversation that happened down stairs. She'd bet money that some of the conversation drifted to her. Once she woke up, she looked at the clock, it was just a little past 4 in the morning.

Shay told her this was the only guest room, Gabby wondered since she woke up alone she wondered where Matt ended up crashing. Grabbing the throw blanket from the chair in the corner of the room, Gabby ventured out into the hallway.

As she suspected, Matt had crashed on the couch in the living room. His feet up on the coffee table and head leaned back on the top of the couch. Much like she had at the hospital, Gabby knelled down in front of him and shook his shoulder.

"You okay?" He sat up, running a hand down his face.

She held her hand out for his, "Come on." She stood. He followed behind her, still half asleep.

Once they got back into the spare bedroom, Gabby stood at the foot of the bed. She knew she had to confess something.

"I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to act around you."

Matt rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand.

"I don't want you thinking you have to be a certain way, I'm not expecting anything from you. This is your first night back in your old life, there's no need to rush."

That was nice for Gabby to hear, in the past week since she's been awake she hasn't felt any pressure from Matt. But it was nice to hear him confirm his expectations.

"Either way, it's silly for you to be down stairs when this bed is big enough for the both of us."

"I'm fine of the couch." Matt assured her.

Gabby looked down at her feet, rocking up onto her toes. "What if I don't want you to?"

"Then we better get some sleep, I have a feeling Shay's going to be up making waffles at the crack of dawn."

"Huh." Gabby voiced her interest, climbing into bed. "Shay seems like the sleep in type."

Matt chuckled, climbing in on the other side. "No that's you."

Like's to sleep in, Gabby added that to the growing list of things she didn't know about herself.

.

"Kelly." Shay yelled in a whisper to her roommate.

Kelly scratched the back of his head, headed toward the spare bedroom where he Shay the blonde standing.

"I'm sure she's fine Shay, let her sleep."

"No look!" Shay insisted, waving him over.

Kelly took into the spare room, he saw Matt laying on his side, facing Gabby. His arms circled around her protectively. Gabby was also laying on her side, head down and nestled into Matt's chest. Kelly couldn't help but smile at the sight.

"How do you think that happened?" Kelly asked.

Shay smiled. "I don't know, but when I got up this morning Casey wasn't down on the couch. It must have been some time last night."

"Good for them." Kelly looked at the couple one last time, before heading down stairs.

Shay stayed behind for a minute, pulling her phone from her sweat pants. After double checking that the flash was off, she snapped a quick picture of the couple.

.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

 **Writers block is one of the most annoying things. I have no ideas swimming around in my brain, and I know people are waiting for chapters to come out. Sorry this is taking so long :( EXTRA long chapter for you today :)**

"There she is!" Hermann announced loudly, in the common room of the fire house.

Gabby smiled at him, snuggling further into Matt's side. Feeling like she needed his support, when a wall of men came rushing toward her. She'd seen pictures of them all, and memorized their names. The only person she'd met outside of those she's living with had been Herrmann, he and his wife Cindy had come over a couple times during the last couple weeks since she'd been released from the hospital.

"Hi Herrmann." Gabby smiled, moving away from Matt to give her a hug.

Cruz smiled at her, "Couldn't stay away?"

She returned the smile. "Figured I should get in here at some point."

"And we are happy you did." Chief Boden said, coming in from the other room. "How are you feeling?"

"Other than having absolutely no memories. I'm doing good." She joked.

Instead of giving her a hug like Gabby suspected he would have, the chief kept a respectful distance.

"Well take a seat." Hermmann told her, pulling out a chair. "Catch us up on what you've been doing."

"The guys have taken me to a couple places I use to go, but I've been spending most of my time at home."

Today was Matt's first day back full time at work, while Gabby knew his idea for her to come spend the day at the fire house was so he'd know she was safe. Gabby went along with it. Her brother would be by in a little bit to get her anyway.

There weren't far into catching up when the bells went off. Gabby stood immediately like she had every other time she was being called into duty. Everyone looked at her, and she looked back at them.

"Guess some things are so ingrained, a building being dropped on ya can't knock it out." Shay smiled at her, patting her friends shoulder.

"It's a house fire, we shouldn't be too long. There is a bunk room just down the-"

Gabby was thankful Matt was trying to help like always, but all the men had already left the room and he was still here.

"Matt go. I'll be fine here for an hour or two." She gave his hand a squeeze.

With one last look at her, he turned and ran toward the truck; knowing his men would already be loaded up waiting for him.

Hearing the sirens disappear into the distance, Gabby sighed. This was the first time she'd really be left alone since walking up in the hospital. If Matt, Kelly and Shay were on shift, her brother or parents were taking her out. While she wanted her memories back, it was also nice to turn her brain off for a minute.

Sitting back down at the table, Gabby looked at the message boards. There were a lot of flyers and a couple different newsletters, but what caught her eye was a drawling pined up in the bottom corner of the board.

Gabby shuttered, holding her breath. Memories of rushing water and yelling flooded her mind. When she caught her breath again the memories faded, leaving as quickly as it came.

"Weird." She muttered to herself.

When her stomach started to rumbled, Gabby decided to look around the kitchen. She wanted something warm to eat, while going though the cupboards Gabby started pulling out the ingredient, for her moms chilli. Gabby paused, not remembering how she knew that. She suddenly could see a picture in her mind. Her mother in the kitchen, a big pot on the stove.

There seemed to be enough stuff here to make enough for everyone when they got back, so Gabby got to work. She doubled the recipe, figuring you'd have to be hungry after fighting fires and stuff.

She was right, when the trucks and ambo returned. Everyone groaned at the smell that seemed to have spread though the whole fire house.

"What smells so good!" Otis said, him and Cruz the first in the door.

"I was hungry and figured I'd make some chilli for everyone."

The both seemed to look at her like they didn't believe her. At this point the rest of the group came inside.

"Wow Dawson. Never thought I'd see the day." Shay laughed.

Matt bumped Shay's hip as he walked over to standby Gabby, noticing how awkward she was getting with the stairs.

"It smells amazing." He tells her, kissing her cheek.

"It really does." Herrmann confirmed. "I just think the boys were shocked that such a yummy smell was coming for that kitchen."

Mills looked hurt. "Now I know you didn't just subtly dis my grandma's chicken tarts?"

Herrmann shoot him a look that seemed to say 'shut it'.

Once everyone filled their bowls and took a seat to enjoy their food, Gabby leaned over to Matt.

"Cooking, not something I do much?"

Matt kept his voice low to match hers, "At home, you love it. At the fire house, cooking is usually a candidates job." He saw the worried look on her face."I'm sure Mills is more than happy to take a break from cooking for the shift."

Gabby nodded, turning back to her food. After a couple more spoon fulls she couldn't eat it any more. Standing she moved to wash her dishes in the kitchen. Mid wash she heard the door to the common room open. She hasn't thought twice about looking up until someone called out her name.

"Dawson, someone here to see you." Capp announced, having been the one bring the guests inside.

The paramedic looked up, along with everyone else. Following the bald firemen was a women and a young boy. Gabby moved around to the other side of the counter, not sure who these people were.

"That's her momma." The young boy smiled, rushing over to Gabby, a piece of paper flapping around in his hand.

"Uh, hi." Gabby smiled politely.

Matt and Shay both stood from the table.

"I'm sorry to drop in like this, we wanted to do it sooner but we heard about your accident." The women told her, smiling at her son.

Gabby looked at her, then around the room, then down at the young boy who'd just given her a hug around the waist. He smiled up at her, his face flashed in her mind as he blinked. Gabby gasped, goosebumps erupted all over her body as a shiver ran through her.

"I drew you another picture." He told her, holding it out for her to take.

Gabby hadn't realized Shay had moved over to her until the blonde started talking.

"Dawson this is-"

Gabby looked toward the bulletin board, where a little over an hour ago she'd seen a similar picture to the one being held up to her now.

"One of the kids from the bridge accident." She finished for Shay.

The room seemed to fall silent then, all eyes on her as she recalled something to memory.

"You remember me." The boy sounded excited.

Putting on her best smile, Gabby slowed herself so she was crouched down so she could be face to face with him.

"Of course. Why don't I hang this up right next to the other one?"

The boy nodded, Gabby rose to her feet. Ignoring the men still staring at her, she walked behind the table and pinned up the young boys drawling.

"We'll let you guys get back to it. I just wanted to say thanks again, for making sure my son was okay. Keep all the other kids safe, we know you did the best you could."

Gabby's smile was a little weaker this time, a sinking feeling in her stomach. "I'm glad I was able to help."

The room remain still as the two left the fire house, Capp walking them out.

"What the hell was that?" Shay exclaimed, the jokingly she added. "You remember him but not your best friend?"

Gabby wasn't sure how to explain herself, "I don't know, just seeing his face. It's foggy, like a dream, but I remember how cold the water was, I remember another little boy his face was blue. But that is all I can remember."

Shay gave her a sad smile, "The boy who fell off the bridge, he didn't make it."

Felling a warm arm wrap around her shoulders, Gabby looked to see Matt beside her. "This is a good thing. At this point it doesn't matter what you're remembering, just that you are."

Gabby gave him a closed lipped smile, because she could see the sadness he tried to hide in his eyes. If she could remember an accident from months back, how could she not remember him.

After everyone had gone back to their places at the table, Gabby asked Matt if he'd be good with her taking the car back to the house. With a promise that she'd come back tomorrow to pick him up once his shift was over.

He looked at her, then looked to the doors Capp was coming back through, then back to Gabby.

"Sure." He decided, even though he didn't want her going off alone when she was clearly upset.

Gabby nodded, pulling out her phone and opening the GPS app. "What's the address?" She whispered, not wanting everyone to know she didn't know that she couldn't remember.

Matt held his tongue, taking the phone from her and typing it into the app. "I'll walk you out." He told her sending it back to her.

"You leaving?" Shay asked, a little disappointed.

Even thought she'd only been there for a couple hours, Shay felt happy to see Gabby back at 51. This place suited her.

Gabby gave her a smile, suddenly feeling self conscious as everyone else stopped talking to listen. "Yeah I think Antonio mentioned wanting to go out for supper or something." She didn't know why she lied, but she did. "Figured I should go home and get ready."

"Oh." Shay simply said, but the message was loud and clear, she knew Gabby just needed to get away from all the prying eyes.

Once they were outside, away from prying ears, Matt stopped Gabby. "I could drop you at home myself, I'll just let the Chief know and Herrmann can cover me for an hour."

"No, I don't want you to miss anymore work. Besides, how hard can it be to follow a GPS. Even with no memories I can do that." She tried to joke.

Matt licked his bottom lip. "Alright. Let me know when you get home." He kissed her on the forehead.

The bells in the fire house when off.

"I will."

Gabby watched Matt run off, she waited until both trucks and the ambulance sped off before getting into his truck.

With GPS in the passenger seat, Gabby started her drive to Kelly and Shay's. From her drive to the station that morning, she knew the house wasn't far away and took things slow. Ever since getting out of the hospital, people had driven her around, this is her first time back behind the wheel. But that old saying about "Riding a bike" Was true.

She pulled into the driveway not 28 minutes later. After trying 3 out of the 7 keys Matt had on his key chain, Gabby found the right one and made her way inside.

After standing around for a solid half an hour, not sure what she should do with herself, Gabby decided that while she was alone, she'd look at some old pictures she had on her phone. With her memory recalling something that morning, she wanted to see if looking at pictures of her friends could maybe bring something to the surface.

.

"Man I'm sure Boden would let you take a ride if you want to go check on her." Kelly told Matt, later that night at the fire house.

When they'd gotten back to the station, Matt tried to text Gabby and had gotten no response. She had texted him once she got back to the house, but he hadn't gotten anything out of her since. He was worried, Gabby is a grown women and Matt knew that, but she was freshly out of the hospital and that creep was still on the loose. She was his girl, he was always going to worry about her.

"No." Matt dropped his phone on the table unceremoniously. "I'm sure she's fine. Her phone is probably just on silent. It is kind of late anyway." He reasoned with himself.

Kelly nodded, "I'm sure you're right. How are you doing anyway? I noticed you're sleeping upstairs now instead of the couch."

Matt couldn't help but smile to himself, "Things are no where near ideal, but they could be worse. I'm just letting Gabby lead the way, I hope it leads her back to me. Even if she can't get all her memories back."

"Don't give up on that yet, I know it's been a while but you saw how she remembered that kid today."

Matt looked down at his lap, "Does it make me a total jerk that I was jealous?"

"Hell no! I would be, hell I am. But when Dawson saved that boy it was an adrenaline filled decision. I'm not entirely surprised that she remembered a memory from work before anything else."

Matt looked back down at his phone and sighed, "I'm going to try and get some sleep."

"Alright man." Kelly watched him walk off to the bunk room.

"Kelly." The chief called to him, making a follow me motion with his head.

Once they were in the privacy of his office, Boden started asking Kelly about Matt.

"He's as well as can be expected." Kelly sighed, "I think he's just worried that she'll change or that he might loss her if Dawson doesn't get her memories back."

"We will look out for him, give them anything they need."

"Already on it chief. I've got them covered."

"Alright. Have you heard anything about the investigation into the man behind this?"

"Antonio came by the house a couple days ago, but there was no more news. Intelligence is looking into people Antonio has put away to people who use to be close to their family. As far as I know, nothings turned up yet."

"Keep me posted?"

Kelly stood. "Will do Chief."

"Alright then, get some sleep."

The night was a silent one, with no calls. When everyone woke well rested the next morning, they were pleased when they made it through the rest of shift without a single bell going off.

When there was an hour left, they were all sat around the common room eating breakfast Mills had prepared.

"Hey." Matt addressed Shay from across the table. "Have you heard from Gabby this morning?"

"No." She saw the look on Matt face. "I'm sure she just didn't set her alarm, or forgot what time she needed to be here by."

"Yeah." Matt said, while typing out a text.

He turned to Kelly. "The other lieutenants arrive yet." He nodded. "You give me a lift back to your place?"

"Yea Man, we'll go grab our stuff." He motioned for Shay to get a move on.

When they pulled onto the street, Matt was happy to see his truck still in the driveway. On their way to the house, he'd been worried Gabby would be on her way to pick him up despite the text he sent her, saying he was getting a ride with Kelly and Shay.

Climbing from the car, Matt waited bouncing on his feet for Shay to unlock the front door. Once inside, they could hear a phone alarm going off in the living room. Matt called to Gabby but didn't hear anything back. Rushing up the stairs to the spare room, he found the sheets were not slept in. The sight send a shiver of fear though him, if she wasn't on the couch or in the bedroom where the hell was she.

"She up here?" Kelly asked, joining him.

Before Matt could answer no, Shay called to him from downstairs. Matt took off, jogging down to the main floor. He found Shay standing at the door to the backyard. When he got to her side, he looked out and saw, Gabby bundled up in the hammock he and Kelly set up once the weather got nicer. Though his heart was still racing in his chest, Matt forced himself to slowly walk outside.

Crouching down so he was eye level with her, Matt moved the hair from Gabby's face. The touch made her stir but her eyes remained closed.

Though the weather was nicer, it still wasn't the best weather for sleeping outside in. Though Matt was happy to find Gabby's skin wasn't frozen.

"Gabbby." He muttered, rubbing her shoulder until her eyes started fluttering.

When she got her eyes open, she smiled at him softly. Her eyes still lazy with sleep, then something started to sink in because her eyes went wide.

"Matt? Oh my god, no I was supposed to pick you up this morning." She wobbled in the hammock trying to get up, despite the fact that he had clearly gotten a ride to the house.

Gabby felt extremely guilty, Matt could see that clear as day on her face.

"Hey, it's alright. Severide and Shay gave me a ride, it's not like we weren't coming to the same place anyway." He joked trying to lighten her up.

Gabby shook her head, her hands moving around her body. "You were counting on me. Where the hell is my phone? I remember I set an alarm."

"You did." He reassured her, not wanting her to doubt what she knew with her memory loss. "It was ringing from inside the house when we got back."

"I'm really sorry Matt." He grabbed her hand and gave it a light squeeze. "Don't give it a second thought. I'm happy you got some sleep, though the hammock isn't the idea place. Did you sleep out here all night?" He asked, not liking her being so vulnerable.

A different look crossed Gabby's face, her eyes dropping from his again. Matt studied her in the silence, not sure exactly what that look meant.

"No I uh, I came out here sometime before the sun was up this morning."

Matt nodded simply, "Okay. You want to come back inside?"

Gabby nodded, taking the hand he offered to her and let him lead her back inside. Her thoughts on the previous night and wither she was going to tell Matt about what happened.

.

Everyone hung out that morning. Usually after getting home from shift they took advantage of the time off and got some sleep. But with the slow shift they were all more than rested. They played cards and told stories from the fire house, Gabby absentmindedly listened. Enjoying the stories but wishing she could remember and tell some of her own.

When the clock hit just after lunch time, the girls decided that the boys should go break out the BBQ since the weather was so nice. When they went off to do that, the girls made a run to the store. They were in serious need of BBQ supplies. Shay told Gabby how BBQing was very popular at their place when spring hit, so they ended up grabbing way more than they needed, in preparation for BBQs to come.

While they were in the check out line, Gabby noticed the was a birthday balloon that had found it's way to the rafters. Giving Shay the perfect view of the underside of her chin.

Shay did a double take, "Woah, that's a nasty bruise."

"What?" Gabby asked, looking back down at her.

"On your right, the whole underside of your jaw is bruised."

Gabby reached up and touch the sore spot, winching as she pressed her fingers into the skin. Her eyes flashing wide for a moment before she forced herself to relax her face.

"I don't know, maybe I bumped it or something, or slept funny on the hammock?"

"Looks like you were shadow boxing in your sleep and someone gave served you with an upper cut."

The conversation fell off there, Shay's attention going to the lady behind the counter. Once in the car though, Gabby felt the need to bring the topic up again.

"You're my best friend, right?"

Shay looked over at her, leaving the car in park. "Yeah."

Gabby rubbed her lips together. "So I usually tell you things."

"There is not one thing I do not know about you Gabby Dawson. What's going on?"

"The bruise, it isn't from sleeping in the hammock."

"Okay."

She paused, not sure how to say what she needed to say. "I passed out in the living room last night."

"What!?" Shay shouted. "Dawson why the hell haven't you said anything? I'll text Matt to meet us at the hospital."

"No." She panicked, "I wasn't sick or anything. I was like my brain just got overwhelmed and shut down."

"Gabby." Shay was turned completely sideways in her seat. "I know you can't remember your paramedic training right now, but if you did? You would be asking me to take you to the hospital to get check out."

"That's exactly it." She tried to explain. "I was looking through old photos in my phone, I'd gotten up to pace cause I was getting frustrated. Nothing looked familiar, none of the pictures were drawing memories. Until I found one of me in a black dress."

Shay waited in silence to hear where this was going.

"I had one red lips and my hair was shorter than it is now, the dress was tight and above my knees. It had small slits out of the fabric above my waist. Seeing that photo, all the sudden it was like I was watching a movie in my mind." Gabby blushed. "Matt was at the door, but I don't think he knocked, he seemed shocked to see me, and then-"

Shay remembered that dress, she remembered the story her friend Gabby had told her about the night her and Matt finally got together.

"He kissed you."

Gabby frowned, "Yeah.."

"Did you tell Casey?"

"No, not yet. I've been trying to think of how to tell him."

"How does this fit into your bruised jaw?"

"I didn't just relive the kiss. I relieve everything from that night." Gabby looked away from the blonde, feeling embarrassed to be sharing something so personal. Even though, before her accident this seemed to be a common occurrence in their friendship. "With it was... finished. Instead of seeing the living room I was staring down at the wood floor."

"You must have landed chin first to get a shiner like that." Shay lifted her friends chin, to inspect the damage. "Well you didn't break the skin. Look I know it sucked spending so much time in the hospital after you woke up. Me speaking as someone who over the course of the many months you were in there, spent most of my time with you. I know you don't want to say anything to make us think you need to go back. Just, we are all worried about you. Casey especially. Just don't keep stuff like this from us, okay?"

Gabby nodded, feeling bad. She knew they all worried about her, it was evident in the way they watched her since she got out of the hospital.

"I really think you should tell Casey. He'll be happy to know you remember him."

"So you're not going to make me go to the hospital?"

Shay shook her head. "Though I can't say the same from Casey when he finds out."

Gabby smiled, he really does care about her. She can't stop thinking about that kiss he laid on her, her lips tingled from the memory.

"So how was it?"

"What?" Gabby asked, feeling like she missed something.

"The sex."

Gabby laughed uncomfortably. "Um-"

When silence followed after that 'um' Shay let her off the hook.

"Don't worry, you already told me how mind blowing it was the first time around."

Both girls laughed, Shay put the car in drive and headed out of the store parking lot. They guys were probably wondering where they were by now.

.

Once back at the house, Kelly and Matt took the meat out side to start grilling. While the girl stayed inside and started working on the salad and vegetables.

"If you wanted to talk to Casey now, Kelly and I can handle things down here."

Gabby looked over at the blonde, her nerves shining though.

"He loves you Gabby, you can't keep things from him. Not when they are this important."

She was right, and Gabby knew it. It's not that they didn't want to tell Matt, but the memory she remembered was personal and she didn't know how to talk about sex with the guy who she has so much history with but doesn't remember.

Putting the knife down on the cutting board, Gabby walked over to the sliding door that lead to the back yard.

"Matt?" She called to him, he turned away from the girl and smiled at her. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

He nodded, "Sure." leaving his beer next to Kelly.

Gabby lead him up to the spare room, wanting as much privacy as possibly for this conversation.

"Everything okay?" He asked her.

"So there is something I have to tell you. Something that happened last night." She watched his face drop. "It isn't bad."

Gabby turned away from him, nervously playing with the long sleeves of her shirt, pulling the fabric over her hands.

"Gabby." Matt was trying to be patient, but the way she was acting put him on edge.

"I remembered something else. When I got back to the house yesterday, I thought if I could remember some kid I should be able to remember the important people in my life." She turned back around to face him, but her eyes couldn't stay connected to his. "I looked though the pictures on my phone. I was getting mad, it was me in the pictures with everyone but there were no memories attached to them."

Matt took a step toward her, reassuring. "The doctor said forcing the memories to come may have the opposite affect."

"I found a picture, the date was from years ago. I must have transferred the picture from an old phone, that's how old it was." Gabby was blabbering, it's apparently what happened when she got nervous.

Matt eyed her, trying to keep her on track he asked. "What was the picture?"

"Me, just me. I took that picture the night we-" Gabby's cheeks burned. "It was the night we were first together."

It took him a second to catch on, but as he thought back, his mind recalled a little black dress and red lips opening the front door. He remembered thinking how drop dead beautiful she looked and how long he wanted to have her in his arms. His eyes fluttered shut for just a second at the memory.

"I didn't just remember the dress. I remembered the whole night."

His eyes snapped to hers upon hearing that, that's why she was blushing? She remembered the first time they'd had sex.

"Seriously?" Though they'd had moments before, the almost kiss at the Christmas party and the jealously with Mills.

That night together, it was the start of them. Matt couldn't help but smile that she remembered.

Gabby nodded, her eyes dropping from his again; time for the other shoe to drop. "It played like a movie in my mind, but I had stood up when before I found that picture. I guess my brain shut down to protect it's self. I'm not really sure."

The joy Matt was feeling lessened a bit, "What do you mean you're brain shut down?"

"I passed out... One minute I was in the memory, then the next time I opened my eyes I was on the floor." Gabby spared a glance at him, his eyes were wide. "I didn't realize it till Shay pointed it out, but wither I hit the coffee table on the way down, or my chin broke my fall."

Matt watched as Gabby tilted her head back, giving him a long look at the deep purple bruise under her chin. Closing the distance between them, Matt did the same thing Shay had done earlier. He inspected and poked at the bruise.

"Why didn't you tell me this when you woke up this morning?" Upset she'd waited all day to tell him.

Gabby shrugged, in a very Gabby like way Matt noted. "You're already worried, I felt fine when I woke up it's not a big deal and it is common for people with memory loss to loss contentiousness." Gabby remembered Dr. Rhoads telling her she might experience black outs.

"People don't pass out for no reason. What if you'd hit your head harder than you realize? You could have caused another brain bleed and we wouldn't even know it. I could have come home to find you still laying on the living room floor. Come on, I'm driving you to the hospital."

"I already told Shay, she checked me out. I'm fine."

Matt shook his head, "Shay, doesn't have a CT machine."

"Look Matt. I'm totally okay. I don't have a headache and I haven't thrown up. I wasn't bleeding from my ears, eye or mouth. My check up at chicago med is in 2 days. If I feel like somethings wrong before then, I'll go in. Otherwise I'm going to wait."

Matt looked down at her, tilting her chin up so he could get another look.

"You feel fine?"

"I feel fine."

"You'll say something, if you don't."

"Yes."

"Promise me."

That caused Gabby to pause, she knew Matt loved her. Who the hell would stick around in a hospital for months if they didn't care. No matter how many times Matt tells her how much he cares. She believed him, but when she got to experience it first hand, it always made her heart swell.

"I promise." She confirmed.

Matt let out a breath through his nose, his hands rubbing up and down Gabby's arms while he looked her over one more time. Gabby felt a shiver run up her spine as her stomach tightened, her eyes fluttering as she drew in a breath. And much like he did that night years ago, Gabby quickly stepped forward, going up on her toes to kiss him.

The kiss was as passion filled as it was that night. Matt's hands held her upper back, holding her to him. While Gabby had her hands on either side of his jaw.

"Gabby." Matt muttered into her lips when the kiss didn't seem to be slowing down.

She pulled back from him slightly, looking up at him with big brown eyes. Matt's heart leaped in his chest, in this moment she look like his Gabby and it was heartbreaking.

"I Promise." She whispered to him, telling him she was more than fine with where these kisses were leading.

As their lips were brought back together, Matt's brain was still fighting him on a decision. Moments ago she was embarrassed to be talking to him about their sex life, and now they kisses seemed to be taking them closer and closer to the bed.

Since the hospital, they'd exchanged simple touches and he'd kissed her on the cheek once or twice but that was the extent of their interaction. To jump to sex now, Matt want to make sure that Gabby was positive about her decision. So he let her lead, giving her time to pull away if that's what she wanted.

When Matt found that the spare bed now rested at the back of his thighs, he let himself sit down. Gabby followed him, climbing into his lap, a thigh on either side of him.

They kissed and Matt felt himself harden when Gabby's soft fingers brushed the skin just under his t-shirt. He lifted his arms as she pulled his shirt from his body, as soon as the material was gone, Gabby ran her hands down Matt's bare chest.

Her shirt was the next to go, Matt couldn't help that his eyes, hands and lips were glued to her freshly exposed skin. Though he held back, not wanting to take things to far and scare her off. Gabby sensed it and she knew. Having last night just experienced how fierce he was when it came to the two of them, she wanted to experience that live time. She couldn't if he was holding back.

After one long kiss, Gabby pulled back looking into Matt's eyes. With a smile she told him, "This feels like home. Being here with you."

Those were the words he needed to break that last bit of resistance he was holding onto. Wrapping his arms securely around her back, he leaned back and rolled them so that he was now looking down at her.

"You're my home Gabby." He told her, before sealing his words with a kiss.


End file.
